BOE to Decide How to Spend Additional State Aid

The New Milford Board of Education has notified by the state that it will receive an additional $288,000 in aid and the district will now have to decide how that money will be spent. 

"We have four options--we can use it for tax payer relief in the current year but we would have to notify the borough immediately," said Michael Sawicz, business administrator for the district. "We could appropriate it into the budget for his year but we would need county approval or we could use it for tax relief in the following year or the year after."

Sawicz said the district has gotten back 40 percent of the overall amount of aid that was lost over the past few years.

"We are looking at how to best utilize those funds," said Sawicz. "With our SRO officers we are looking to possibly fund those positions to help the borough and the taxpayers--we will be talking to the Mayor and chief on that."

Sawicz said the district will not apply it for tax relief this year. 

"The more logical is to appropriate it into the budget or use it for tax relief in the next two years," Sawicz said. 

BOE Trustee David Foo asked what areas of the budget will be examined when determining the best use of the additional aid. 

"Will we take a look at all the programs we cut out—athletic programs, freshman sports, other positions we had to cut--are we going to take a hard look on how we are going to apply that aid?" said Foo. 

Sawicz said district administrators would be looking at all areas and would have a full report at the BOE's next meeting in August.

Peggy Saslow, another BOE trustee, asked how much the average taxpayer would receive if the district applied the additional aid for tax relief. Sawicz said a rough estimate, without exact numbers, would likely not be more than $20 per taxpayer.

"It would mean an awful lot to us and not much to the taxpayer," said Saslow. 

The BOE meets again on August 15 at 7 p.m. in the NMHS Media Center.