Opinion: Sabia's Zero Budget Request Not 'Out of Order'

The following opinion piece was submitted to Northport Patch on April 15 by CPA and former Northport-East Northport School District audit committee member   Armand J. D’Accordo:

Dear Editor, The Patch,

I was at the Board of Education meeting on April 8 and I want to thank Trustee Sabia for trying to get the Board and district administration to produce a budget with no increase in property taxes for the 2013-14 school year.

I don't think his comments were at all outof order. If the topic of conversation on the agenda was the budget how could that not be the right time to make the comments?

Trustee Badanes said if he was Board President he would have used the gavel to find Mr. Sabia out of order and prohibited him from speaking. Thankfully he is not the Board President and I hope he never is if that is how he would react to a member of the Board or community speaking at a public meeting.

I believe his reaction stifled any conversation about Trustee Sabia's proposal and the fact is it is a very reasonable proposal. Trustee Badanes should remember that a board meeting is not a courtroom.

I think the Trustees, especially the new ones, should be thankful that Mr. Sabia had done some homework and was able to provide this information to the Board and the community. The historical spending pattern of the district is very relevant to the budget conversation.

As I and others have stated on numerous occasions, and as shown in the chart Trustee Sabia presented, the district has under spent the budget by about $8 million on average from the 2008-09 to 2011-12 school years, is on track to under spend the 2012-13 budget by about the same amount and has built up very large reserve balances.

As a result, a budget with no tax increase can be accomplished WITH NO CUTS INPROGRAMS. The budget can be reduced and/or additional reserves can be used asrevenue to ensure there will be no tax increase next year.

It was laughable that there was so much angst at the meeting when Trustee Maloney suggested that the Board cut the budget by an additional $200,000. There is more than $200,000 extra in the TAN interest line alone and more buried in other lines, particularlythose labeled “district-wide.” That's how the surpluses get created each year.

I thought there were others on the Board that understood and disagreed with the games the administration is playing with the budget and was very disappointed that only Trustee Sabia voted against the proposed budget.

I was hoping for a budget proposal with no tax increase so I could support it. But that didn't happen so I am going to vote NO! Yes, an increase below 2% looks good but it can be 0% and the community can get a break. The district has enough of our money to make this happen. Enough is enough. Have you had enough?

Predictability the district administration claimed that if the budget is voted down they will have to cut programs and lay-off teachers. And of course they will threaten to cut sports and clubs and transportation and on and on. Ask them, if actual expenditures are millions of dollars less than the budget, why do you need to cut anything?

Enrollment from the 2005-06 to the 2012-13 school years is down about 7% overall and over 17% at the elementary level (enrollment information, which used to be includedin the budget packs provided to the public, was provided by the district as a result of a Freedom of Information Law [FOIL] request).

A further drop in enrollment of almost 200 students is expected for the 2013-14 school year and the Superintendent hasbeen quoted as saying that declining enrollment is expected to continue for years tocome due to families moving away due to the cost of living on Long Island becoming exorbitant (school taxes being a big contributor to this).

So why is the final budget up 42% from the 2005-06 to the 2012-13 school years? And why is the proposed budget for 2013-14 up another 1.67% year-to-year? 

Enough is enough. Have you had enough? 

Armand J. D’Accordo, CPAFormer Member of the Northport-East Northport Audit Committee