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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Wallkill presents $72m spending plan
By TED REMSNYDER
It’s no easy task to deliver a school
budget that includes enhanced programs
for students and additional staff without
increasing the tax levy. But the Wallkill
Central School District has done just that
with its proposed 2016-2017 spending plan,
which the district revealed at a public
hearing on Thursday evening at the High
School. The $71,912,252 suggested budget,
which will be up for a public vote on
May 17th, represents a 1.48% increase
over last year’s total. An assist from the
state, which finally eradicated the Gap
Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and will
raise school aid $1.47 billion statewide
this year, allowed the district to achieve a
zero percent tax levy increase.
By holding the tax levy steady at
last year’s level of $39,921,252, Wallkill is
$358,876 below the limit of 0.9% set by the
state. At its March budget presentation,
the
administration
conservatively
estimated that they would receive
$27,670,000 in state aid and would end
up with a budget right at the tax cap
limit. But with the state earmarking a
record-high $24.8 billion for schools in its
adopted budget and saying goodbye to the
GEA reductions that placed a burden on
public schools in recent years, Wallkill is
set to receive an estimated $28,100,000 in
state aid this year, up $700,000 from last
year.
Since they had more wiggle room to
operate under, the administration had
to weigh the prospect of going all the
way up to the 0.9% cap or aiding the
taxpayers by keeping the levy at zero. The
district chose the latter. “Philosophically,
whenever we get more aid than what we
originally projected, we take that and
balance it between adding positions along
with reducing the original levy we came
up with,” Wallkill Superintendent Kevin
Castle said. “So in keeping with that
philosophy, we did that. Clearly the zero
percent tax levy will be very helpful with
our taxpayers.”
With the elimination of the GEA, state
aid for the district has finally returned
to levels last seen in 2008-2009. “We
cannot make it without the state giving
us the money that they give us,” Board
of Education president Joseph LoCicero
said. “I have to tip my hat to Kevin Castle
and (Assistant Superintendent) Brian
Devincenzi. Without those two men, and
without Kevin’s vision, this job would
be a horror show. For the Board of Ed,
they make it very easy for us so we can
continue with all of these services and
hire all of these people and stay under
budget.”
Even though the GEA money has been
restored for this year’s budget,