ELMSFORD, NY — On May 16, the Elmsford school district’s voters rejected the proposed $43.4 million budget for 2023-24.
The budget was 8.95 percent higher than the 2022-23 spending package. The increase in the property tax levy, while under the state tax cap, was 5.48 percent.
It didn’t seem to matter that the district was proposing a tax rate that would mean the average homeowner could see an estimated decrease of $545 in taxes.
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The voters also rejected increasing the capital reserve fund from $5 million to $25 million, which would have had no monetary impact on the taxpayers.
All of the above sent a message that Superintendent Ronald Gonzalez and the Board of Education heard clearly.
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“Everyone is feeling the pinch of the rate of inflation,” Gonzalez told Patch, “and the community was asking for significantly less in terms of the tax levy.”
He said the district intends to rework the spending package and present a new one to the public for a vote Tuesday, June 20.
“Rather than going to contingency,” which would have meant a budget of $41.4 million, Gonzalez said, “we are voting again.”
He said there will be three community forums during which the district will lay out its revised budget: at 7 p.m. May 30 and June 1 in Zoom sessions and at 6 p.m. May 31 in the Alexander Hamilton High School library.
Gonzalez said the turnout for the May 16 was larger than in years past.
“It was a record-setting year in the number of voters,” he said, adding that the public had many opportunities to familiarize themselves with the spending package.
There were 17 presentations in different venues between March 4 and the vote, Gonzalez said.
“At the end, we had very, very few questions,” he said.
To avoid hurting the students and the learning process, Gonzalez said the budget — and the tax levy — will be trimmed by reducing or eliminating capital projects for the district.
As an example, the rejected budget contained a roofing project for Alice E. Grady Elementary School.
“The architects gave us a three-year window for that,” Gonzalez said, and that is one of the projects that is likely going to be cut from the budget.
He said the most important thing will be to protect the integrity of the educational process and “stay away from the capital projects.”
Gonzalez said it is a daunting process creating any school district budget.
“There has to be a healthy balance between all the students receiving what they need,” he said, “and what the community is willing to support.”
According to the New York State Education Department, if the voters fail to approve the budget after the second submission, the Board of Education must adopt a contingency budget.
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