SYRACUSE -- New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says for the second time in modern history, the state's General Fund ended the first quarter of the fiscal year with a negative balance. He says that could mean school aid payments in September could be delayed.
"There are fiscal storm clouds rolling in," says DiNapoli. "The next school aid payments are due in September, and New York's cash umbrella may not be big enough. The state could, once again, be seriously in the red. Final action on a complete budget is needed, and we must continue to closely monitor spending and revenues."
For the Syracuse City School District, the September state aid payment amounts to $6.5 million. The district's chief financial officer Suzanne Slack says that's about 2% of the district's total state aid. Slack says if the payments are delayed less than a month, the district should be OK. However, if the payments are delayed longer than that, the district may have to delay paying some of its bills, like the aid the district provides to charter schools.
"If you look around our school district, these kids don't have any extras," says Slack. "They need the funding the state makes available to them. They deserve it. And when the state, all of a sudden, says no you're not going to get those funds timely, that does eventually have a trickle down impact on the children in our district."
The district has already cut about 250 positions. Slack says, if state aid is reduced again, that could mean more staffing reductions.
Baldwinsville Superintendent Jeanne Dangle says the next big payment her district will receive from the state will come in December. However, she says if the state starts delaying payments in September, it could still affect the district. Dangle says the district receives about $2.8 million in STAR money from the state in October, November, and December. If the state decides to delay those payments, she says the district may have to borrow money, and that could negatively affect taxpayers.
"If you have to borrow, then there's an additional cost with the interest to the taxpayers and all the finances that go into borrowing revenue, so we would prefer not to have to do that," says Dangle.
As of now, Dangle says, it looks like the district will be OK in September because that's when payments from the tax levy start coming in.
