[SchoolMatters] School budget under review

[Brian Wheeler]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This message is not an official communication of the Albemarle County School
Board. SchoolMatters is a private, e-mail newsletter written by Brian
Wheeler, At-Large Member of the Albemarle County School Board.  This
communication authorized by Brian Wheeler for School Board.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Want to share some public comments on this message?  See the weblog version
here: http://schoolmatters.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/fy2008_budget.html]
 
This week, the Board of Supervisors begins its review of the 2007-08
Albemarle County budget.  The school division has requested about $151
million, an amount balanced to the revenues we expected the County to
receive by keeping the tax rate at $0.74 per $100 of assessed value.  The
County Executive, Bob Tucker, has taken the School Board's request and
folded it into his budget recommendations for the Supervisors.  As the
ledger currently stands, the school division's request has been trimmed by
$1.92 million.  About $1.8 million of that amount comes from the set-aside
of 2 cents of the tax rate, something Mr. Tucker was instructed to do on
January 10, 2007 by the Board of Supervisors (after the Superintendent had
already completed her draft budget).  In response to the 11th hour change,
the Superintendent presented the School Board with a funding request that
honored this request and came in at about $149 million.  She also identified
the following categories of unfunded initiatives:

*	$1.8 million - Tier I "essential unfunded initiatives" (i.e. these
were in her budget before the tax rate set-aside)
*	$1.4 million - Tier II "needed unfunded initiatives"
*	$1.2 million - Tier III "unfunded extension initiatives"

Link to School budget:
http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/docmgr/default.php
?sectionid=5416
Link to County Executive's budget:
http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=budget
<http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=budget&relpage=9254>
&relpage=9254
 
On February 14th, we learned that the living wage proposal was not going to
receive support from the joint boards this year (our starting wage is
proposed to be $9.10/hr. in this budget whereas a living wage was identified
at $11.07).  Abandoning that initiative allowed for some of the Tier I
initiatives to become "funded" again since the Superintendent had included
partial funding of a living wage in her budget.  In fact, the School Board
was persuaded that ALL of Tier I and some of the Tier II initiatives should
receive support as essential needs for the school division.  Thus the
funding request we submitted on a unanimous vote to the Board of Supervisors
utilized the 2 cents of the tax rate which had been set aside.  This funding
request from the school division has my support and I believe it goes a long
way towards supporting goals in our strategic plan.
 
Mr. Tucker has prepared an overall County budget based on maintaining the
tax rate at $0.74 cents.  He has also created a "reassessment reserve" of
$3.5 million which the Board of Supervisors will discuss how to allocate.
Key issues before the Supervisors include not only setting the tax rate and
deciding what to do with the reserve, but also thinking about the County's
long term needs.  These two charts show a view of the long-term picture (5
years) for both local government and the school division if we keep the tax
rate at its current level and pursue priority strategic initiatives.  As you
can see, in neither budget is there projected to be enough revenue.
 
Links to charts:
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/
<http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/five-year-trend.pdf>
docs/five-year-trend.pdf 
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/five-year-trend-local-gov.pdf
 
As the community reviews the school division's budget and prepares to give
feedback to the Board of Supervisors at their public hearing this Wednesday,
it should do so knowing that all the elected officials are, in my opinion,
trying to balance the tax burden (rising with increased assessments and
growth in the community) with the goals that the community has helped
identify in the comprehensive plan and the strategic plans for local
government and the school division.  All of these goals have been set with a
tremendous amount of community input.  Our efforts are also challenged by
Federal and State governments that are not fully funding mandated programs
and essential services, thus shifting the burden to local government.  The
revenue generating tool local government depends on the most is the local
real estate property tax.
 
Brian Wheeler
 
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Brian Wheeler
 <mailto:bwheeler at albemarlematters.com> bwheeler at albemarlematters.com
 <http://www.wheeleronboard.com/> http://www.wheeleronboard.com
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