February 2007 Vol. XXI, No. 2
 

GOVERNOR RELEASES BUDGET

Charles Winters, SCSD Education Finance Consultant, issued the following memo to Association Executive Director, Robert Biggerstaff, on February 7^th. Overall, Mr. Winters is cautiously optimistic that the Governor has proposed aid targeted to school districts with the greatest need. He also reports that the Governor’s proposal offers sustained reform, rather than a one or two year “band-aid”.

To:       Robert E. Biggerstaff
From:    Charles A. Winters
Re:       Executive Budget Aid Proposals
Date:    February 7, 2007

Governor Spitzer’s proposal for school aid may have started with the Regents concepts, but it made many excellent refinements.  The results for Foundation Aid were clearly targeted on student need.  The vast majority of the small city schools fared very well.

The calculated aid ceilings are based on three factors: the base aid ceiling, the regional cost index and the pupil need index.  The pupil need index itself includes four factors:  the free and reduced lunch weight of .65, the poverty rate from the 2000 census also weighted at .65, the LEP rate at .5 and sparsity factor that begins at 25 students per square mile or lower.  When all of these weights are included, however, the resulting need weighting correlates with the free lunch rate at .85, with a very steep slope, much like the Small Cities FFA formula.  As a result, most rural and urban districts made distinct gains over suburban districts.  This is exactly the result we had urged.  The multi-part poverty rate will not fluctuate as much over time as a single free lunch rate might.

Moreover, the formula is already pre-indexed for four years of 2.5% cost-of-living increases.  The fourth year’s (2010-2011) foundation is what is calculated and 20% of that long term increase is paid this year.  The local share of the foundation is calculated an assumed tax rate of $16 per $1,000 of value, modified by each district’s income ratio to the state.  Future base tax rates will be pegged to 90% of the state average rate.  This is also something we urged to prevent high rates of property inflation from reducing the state’s share. 

We had also urged that all districts receive only a portion of their increase each year so that more districts will continue to have a stake in reform down the road.  This important point originally came from Dr. William Duncombe’s advice on our initial FFA proposal.  This is an exceptionally clever way to spread reform over four years.  If this passes intact this year, it will make it far more difficult for future legislatures to renege on the promises made now.  Formula districts only received 20% of their projected total aid increase this year.  This implies a steady continuation of these overall results for the balance of the Governor’s entire first term.   We have also warned that, unless districts were assured that increases would continue, they would be reluctant to invest in recurring costs like added staff.  This proposal addresses this worry very directly. 

Governors of both parties have historically been very careless with their initial school aid proposals, knowing that the legislature would do the serious work and the heavy lifting of adding more funding, but the end result has been driven by political shares, not student needs.  By contrast, this proposal is the most serious and thoughtful look at school finance reform that I have ever seen.  It is principled, thoughtful and ingenious.  Whoever helped craft this proposal should be congratulated on an excellent and thorough job.

The Regent’s proposal was already well conceived to target aid, but the Governor’s proposal has added elements to improve stability and predictability while keeping the funds highly focused on needy districts.

However, the Governor’s work has also preempted the traditional work of both Houses of the Legislature.  Their possible reaction concerns me.  I am writing strong letters of support to both of my legislators.  I hope others will as well.

Down the road we can look at some fine tuning that could be helpful without doing harm to the targeted nature of design.  I have the data on the detailed mechanics of the proposal, so we will be in a position to analyze alternative outcomes.

Association Analysis – Executive Budget State Aid to Education

The Association analyzed the computerized aid runs from the Governor’s 2007-2008 budget proposal. Below are the percent change (increase or decrease) from the 2006-2007 school year to the 2007-2008 school year. Chart I reflects total aid, while Chart II is the new foundation formula aid which includes the following aids from 2006-2007: Flex Aid, Excess Cost: Public w/o High, SBE, LEP, Enrollment Adjustment, Supplementary Extraordinary Needs, Growth, Operating Reorganization Incentive, High Tax, Tax Limitation, Early Grade Class Size Reduction, Teacher Support, Small Cities and IPP, Cat. Rdg, Magnet, Ft. Drum. Chart III is total aid with BOCES, transportation, building, and building reorganization aids subtracted.

CHART I: TOTAL AID

CHART II: FOUNDATION AID*

CHART III: TOTAL AID-(BOCES, TRANS, BLDG, BLDG REORG)

For a complete copy of this analysis, which includes dollar amounts of all education aids please contact our office.

STATE AID TO EDUCATION REFORM PROGRAM – WAMC

In an effort to help the public understand the complexities of state aid to education reform, Charles Winters, SCSD Consultant, has offered to underwrite a panel program on WAMC. The Association’s Board of Directors has gratefully accepted this offer and work is now underway to plan the program.

Carl Hayden, former NYS Chancellor of the Regents, Judith Johnson, SCSD President and Superintendent from Peekskill, Frank Mauro, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute and Mr. Winters have all agreed to participate. Alan Chartock will moderate. Our office is still working on other invitations and will inform our members as we receive confirmations.

The date for taping the program is February 20^th. We will let everyone know the air dates when they are scheduled.

LEGISLATIVE BREAKFAST

MARCH 13, 2007

Invitations to the 21^st annual legislative breakfast go out this month. This year the breakfast is scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, 2007 starting at 8:00 am at the Fort Orange Club in Albany.  Scheduled to speak are: DOB Director Paul Francis, Senator Stephen Saland, and Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, Chairs of their respective Education Committees. All 66 Legislators from the 57 Small City School Districts will also be invited.

AGENDA AND REGISTRATION BELOW:

8:00 –  10:30 am 
Breakfast and Introductory remarks: Association President Judith Johnson, Superintendent Peekskill CSD.

                                   Breakfast Speakers: Topic: The Executive Budget           

                                   Senator Stephen Saland (R-C, Poughkeepsie), Chair of the Senate Education         Committee

                                   Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D, Queens), Chair of the Assembly Education Committee

                                   Paul Francis, Director, Division of Budget

10:30 – 12:30 pm        Lobbying Appointments at the Capitol

 

Bob Biggerstaff and members of the Board of Directors are scheduling appointments at the Capitol with Senator Joseph Bruno, Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, Senator Malcolm Smith, Minority Leader and Assemblyman James Tedisco, Minority Leader, Governor Eliot Spitzer. Members are encouraged to make appointments during this time with their individual representatives. Our office will provide pens and notepads to give out at these meetings as well as substantive materials. Below is the registration form for the breakfast. Please feel free to call or email our office with any questions.                                                          

REGISTRATION: NYSASCSD Legislative Breakfast March 13, 2007 Fort Orange Club

Name(s):________________________________________

 

Title:___________________________________________

 

District: _______________________________________________

Please respond, if possible, by March 6, 2007. There is a $30.00 fee for each individual.  Checks should be made out to the NYS Association of Small City School Districts.  Please return your completed form with the fee to Beth Biggerstaff, The Biggerstaff Law Firm, 318 Delaware Avenue, Main Square, Delmar, NY 12054 (518) 475-9500, (518) 475-7677 FAX, beb@biggerstaff-firm.com.

NEW BOARD POLICY – LEGAL ADVISORY SERVICES

At the May Board of Directors meeting, the need for an official board policy on requests for legal opinions from Association members was discussed. From time to time, member districts make requests of Association counsel for legal opinions. While many of these requests are fairly straightforward, they often take time for research and preparation of the opinion. The Board adopted the following policy for these requests.

BOARD POLICY

Re: Legal Advisory Services                                              November 27, 2006

From time to time, Association members seek to obtain legal opinions, advice or consultation on matters of specific concern to an individual member district from Association counsel. The Association through its counsel have been providing such opinions, advice and consultation on an ad hoc basis without charge to the district. The Board wishes to continue providing such services to individual member districts at Association expense within certain parameters so that such services may be provided evenly throughout the membership and within the Association budget.

Therefore, it is approved that Association counsel may provide district specific legal services to individual member districts as requested by them, including but not limited to legal opinions, advice and consultation., provided as follows:

1) the first five hours of such services in any year shall be provided without charge to the requesting district,

2) requests for such services which require work exceeding five hours may be provided by counsel at the district’s expense as may be agreed by and between the district and counsel, and

3) such expense shall be payable to the Association upon terms and conditions specified in the agreement between the district and Association counsel, shall be evidenced by a district purchase order, and shall be characterized as ‘Association dues-legal services.’

Please feel free to contact the Association with questions or comments about this policy (518-475-9500 or via email, beb@biggerstaff-firm.com).

SPAM FILTERS

Please be aware that from time to time the Association’s newsletters, legislative alerts and other e-mail correspondence are returned as “undeliverable” due to district spam filters. Our office is working to address this issue and will fax these messages to district offices as they are returned. Association correspondence will come from either Bob Biggerstaff (reb@biggerstaff-firm.com) or Beth (beb@biggerstaff-firm.com). Spam filters can be adjusted to allow messages from these email addresses to be delivered. Please let our office know if there is anything we can do to help make communication successful.

UPCOMING
EVENTS

March 13, 2007
Legislative Breakfast
Fort Orange Club
Albany, NY

May 20-21, 2007
Annual Conference
Gideon Putnam Hotel
Saratoga Springs