If approved, spending proposal lowers school aid, although Haldane OK
Beacon and Garrison are among more than 300 school districts that will receive less state aid in 2024-25 under Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget, although Haldane in Cold Spring would see an increase.
The decreases are the result of a proposal by Hochul to change the formula used to calculate what is known as Foundation Aid, a portion of state education funding that considers factors such as a district’s relative wealth and the number of students it serves.
Hochul would like to eliminate a Foundation Aid provision that guarantees districts will receive at least the same amount of aid as the year before, with an adjustment for inflation. In addition, she has proposed reducing that cost-of-living increase to 2.4 percent, from 4.1 percent.
If the governor’s changes are approved by the Legislature — which is far from certain — Beacon would lose about 3 percent of its state aid, or $900,000, according to Ann Marie Quartironi, the district’s deputy superintendent. The district received $30.8 million in state aid for 2023-24, which represents about 38 percent of its $81.3 million in revenue.
In Garrison, the district would lose 17 percent of its overall state funding, or about $200,000, according to Carl Albano, the interim superintendent. For 2023-24, the district received $1.1 million from the state toward its $12.6 million budget.
Haldane’s overall state funding would increase. The district anticipated a 5.6 percent increase in Foundation Aid for 2024-25, or an additional $157,000 to the $2.8 million it received for this academic year, according to Superintendent Philip Benante. Under Hochul’s formula, Haldane’s overall state aid for 2024-25 would jump to $4.7 million, an increase of nearly $300,000, said Catherine Platt, the district’s business manager. Haldane’s budget for 2023-24 is $28.2 million.
While Hochul’s budget would increase overall school spending by 2.4 percent, to $825 million, that is $375 million short of what was anticipated before the proposed revisions to the formula, according to the Association of School Business Officials of New York. As a result, about 45 percent of school districts would experience a decrease in state funding, the ASBO said.
Now the negotiations begin with the Legislature. Its members in the Assembly and Senate who represent the Highlands quickly objected to the proposed changes.
“Gov. Hochul is reneging on her promise to fully fund Foundation Aid to our schools,” said Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, while Assembly Member Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, said the proposal “would force school districts to choose between making cuts or raising taxes.”
“How can the governor claim to advance educational ‘equity’ when she’s taking the most basic resources away from children?” said State Sen. Rob Rolison, whose district includes the Highlands.
Speaking Monday night at the meeting of the Beacon school board, Superintendent Matt Landahl said that the governor’s budget should be viewed as “the opening of a negotiation.” He added: “This is far from done.”
So this is our governor “opening negotiations” on education spending? Maybe she could open negotiations on the billions of dollars in New York taxpayers’ money being handed out to illegal immigrants. Maybe she could trim that a bit and put it back into the funds used to educate the children who are citizens.
It’s very interesting that Beacon municipal government promised so much additional incoming tax revenue from the new commercial and residential development to help fund needed city and civic services. We see how well that’s all working out. For each year the new residential developments have been built, they have executed tax certiorari filings, receiving significant reductions in their property tax assessment, in many cases getting it reduced by half, significantly lowering their civic benefit and contribution.