POPLAR RIDGE - The Southern Cayuga Central School District's tight financial belt may loosen a bit if three elected state officials get their way.
On Monday, Southern Cayuga Superintendent Mary Kay Worth updated the board of education on efforts from state Sen. Michael Nozzolio and state Assemblymen Gary Finch and Brian Kolb to help the district out with a debt owed to the state for building projects since 2002.
The three officials introduced identical bills into the Senate and Assembly calling for the money owed for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years - the only years for which the education department completed audits - totaling $234,489 to be paid over a course of six years.
These bills will now go to committees for review, Worth said, and must be put back on the floor within the week in order for the legislative bodies to take action before the end of the session on June 23.
“Assemblymen Finch and Kolb and Senator Nozzolio are working hard on this and really, really trying to help us out here,” Worth said. “These are really extraordinary efforts to try to pull these types of things through a legislative session in such a short turn around. It's possible - and I'm still very hopeful - but it's not a done deal until its a done deal.”
Shortly after adopting the first budget in April, the board discovered through state audits that the district owes about $400,000 for building projects for the years 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07.
When initially calculating how much the district would owe for the near future, district officials took the total amount owed for 2002-03 and 2003-04 and the estimated debt for 2004-05 and divided it by three - the district currently qualifies for a three-year payback based upon its fund balance - and came up with $182,196.
As the education department has not finalized the 2004-05 audit, the Legislature can act only on the first two years that have final reports, Worth said.
Audits for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years are not yet complete.
The state debt threatened to raise the tax levy in the revised 2008-09 budget higher than the original one defeated May 20. However, the education department was able to give the district “reasonable assurance” that $150,000 of the money the state owes the district stemming from the latter half of the 1990s would be returned to off-set the tax levy.
In other news:
* In a 4-3 vote, the board signed a five-year, $57,000 contract with the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office for a school resource officer.
The district just completed a four-year contract with the office for an SRO with three years paid for by a grant and the fourth a district expenditure.
Board members Dean Winspear, Leonard Jordan and Jim Wilcox voted against it.
* A vote on the district's 2008-09 proposed school budget is slated for today until 9 p.m. in the planetarium at the campus on Route 34B in Poplar Ridge.
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
The three officials introduced identical bills into the Senate and Assembly calling for the money owed for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years - the only years for which the education department completed audits - totaling $234,489 to be paid over a course of six years.
These bills will now go to committees for review, Worth said, and must be put back on the floor within the week in order for the legislative bodies to take action before the end of the session on June 23.
“Assemblymen Finch and Kolb and Senator Nozzolio are working hard on this and really, really trying to help us out here,” Worth said. “These are really extraordinary efforts to try to pull these types of things through a legislative session in such a short turn around. It's possible - and I'm still very hopeful - but it's not a done deal until its a done deal.”
Shortly after adopting the first budget in April, the board discovered through state audits that the district owes about $400,000 for building projects for the years 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07.
When initially calculating how much the district would owe for the near future, district officials took the total amount owed for 2002-03 and 2003-04 and the estimated debt for 2004-05 and divided it by three - the district currently qualifies for a three-year payback based upon its fund balance - and came up with $182,196.
As the education department has not finalized the 2004-05 audit, the Legislature can act only on the first two years that have final reports, Worth said.
Audits for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years are not yet complete.
The state debt threatened to raise the tax levy in the revised 2008-09 budget higher than the original one defeated May 20. However, the education department was able to give the district “reasonable assurance” that $150,000 of the money the state owes the district stemming from the latter half of the 1990s would be returned to off-set the tax levy.
In other news:
* In a 4-3 vote, the board signed a five-year, $57,000 contract with the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office for a school resource officer.
The district just completed a four-year contract with the office for an SRO with three years paid for by a grant and the fourth a district expenditure.
Board members Dean Winspear, Leonard Jordan and Jim Wilcox voted against it.
* A vote on the district's 2008-09 proposed school budget is slated for today until 9 p.m. in the planetarium at the campus on Route 34B in Poplar Ridge.
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
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Post your comment - click hereThere are 4 comment(s)
a.mom wrote on Jun 17, 2008 3:34 PM:
Why haven't we been paying the state for our building projects? Why do we expect other tax payers elsewhere in the state to "cover" us for our delinquency?
I'm really troubled by the bickering that goes on when we have rather large issues to confront. How on earth did the business office and the BOE overlook this building debt - is this incompetence or negligence? "
country chick wrote on Jun 17, 2008 1:58 PM:
thinksensibly wrote on Jun 17, 2008 1:35 PM:
country chick wrote on Jun 17, 2008 12:50 PM: