Martins Discusses Mineola Schools’ State Aid Decrease

Following news that the Mineola School District would be in the 2012-13 school year than it has in the current year and receiving a number of letters from concerned parents that the state was cutting the amount of aid, state , R-Mineola, tried to explain the reasoning behind the numbers.

“Given the circumstances that Mineola’s worked so hard as they have to get a handle on their budget, they didn’t think it was appropriate that state aid to the school district was being cut,” Martins said in a telephone interview. “I’m concerned that there may be a perception that there has been a cut when there isn’t.”

Under ’s current proposal, the district would lose $87,292, or a 1.97 percent decrease in state aid. Due to the loss of state aid and other federal moneys, specifically ARRA funding, the district is facing a loss of about $300,000 in revenue, or about .4 percent.

In 2011-12, Mineola received $5,025,082 in total state aid. Under the governor’s proposed budget, the number would decrease to $4,967,824, a decrease of $57,258. There are two components to state aid: foundation aid – money to underwrite expenses and which the district can apply to any purpose – and reimbursements for certain types of expenses. Mineola’s foundation aid, totaling $3,703,599, is listed as remaining constant.

“Not only are they still getting what they got last year with no cuts, it is the governor’s proposed budget, we are still working on increasing the level of aid, but I just thought it was important that given the fact that there were a number of a form letter that was circulating out there, this seems like somebody may not have understood the nature of these numbers,” Martins said, noting that he did not know if there were any cuts to foundation aid on Long Island. “Most people don’t understand, they don’t make that distinction; if you’re getting less money it’s because somebody must have cut something.”

Martins reported that while the amount that Mineola receives in foundation aid has remained constant “and we’re still working on increasing that,” the amount of reimbursable aid decreased, “not because there was a cut but because the school district itself hasn’t spent the money so you can’t reimburse somebody for an expense that they didn’t have.”

Using the example of a transportation expense or a special needs child that moved out of the district, Martins explained that since the expense no longer exists, the district would no longer be eligible for the reimbursable expense. “But that doesn’t mean that their state aid to the school district went down, it just means that they no longer have an expense that is reimbursable,” he said.

Mineola Assistant Superintendent of Finance Jack Waters confirmed that “we certainly had slightly less spending in some of the areas that are reimbursable,” during the March 1 meeting of the at the .

Some BOCES spending is considered reimbursable aid and Waters stated at the January 19 board meeting that spending in BOCES budget lines had decreased.

“Some of the expenses are not aidable, some are so I think that where’s there’s a reduction in BOCES, two factors: one, we might have spent a little bit less and then we may have reallocated the way we spent money,” he said at the March 1 meeting, noting the numbers were based on how the district closed last year and projects to spend this year.

“So they’re directly attributed to closing of the school and reducing expenses,” Dr. Nagler added at the meeting.

The reduction in transportation aid comes as a result of the percentage of aid decreasing about 2 percent according to Waters. The decrease went from 9.4 percent in 2011-12 to 7.4 percent in 2012-13, “so when they take that percentage, 7.4 percent and apply it against the expenses for transportation that are aidable, we end up losing because of that percentage decrease of 2 percent, we end up losing approximately $45,000 or $50,000,” Waters said, explaining that the figure was based on the total assessed valuation of the district from 2008-09, which increased slightly.

“Because of that wealth increase the state reduced our transportation aid ratio by 2 percent.”

Dr. Nagler said that “on the flip side of that, they try to give it back to you with that tax levy calculation I did last time, that growth factor, so our number was a little higher. So they’re taking from one pot and giving you in another.”

Mineola has one more year with a high assessment number “and then then number goes down,” the superintendent said.

“If it appears that they spent less in those areas last year, so they’re not going to receive as much,” Martins said. “That’s not a cut, it’s just a reflection that the school district has not spent as much as they had in the past, which is a good thing that shouldn’t be interpreted as a state aid cut to local education.”

With the state legislative ready to start joint budget committee meetings the first week of March, Martins is expecting to receive an on-time budget by April 1 complete with an . Governor Cuomo had originally promised to increase the statewide amount of school aid by 4 percent.

“I do believe we’re going to be able to do better than the governor’s proposed budget suggests,” Martins said. “Everybody is pretty committed to getting this budget done on time.”