1. Maintaining Balance in Times of Stress
Nassau PTA Legislation Roundtable
Hofstra University March 3, 2013
Joseph C. Dragone
Assistant Superintendent for Business
Roslyn Public Schools

2. Part I: State Aid

3. The Governor’s Proposal on School Aid for 2013-14 (Exec Runs)
$550 million in “formula” aid changes including:
Foundation Aid (no change), Gap Elimination Adjustment Restoration ($321.5 million), High Tax Aid (-$50 million)
Expense Based Aids ($278.8 million)
$203 million in one-time “stress relief” (pensions, etc.)
$125 million in grant programs (extended day, performance, etc.)

4. Devil in the details?
Foundation Aid and High Tax are flexible forms of aid
GEA reduces the amount of flexible aid available
Expense aid is reimbursement for textbooks, debt service, special education excess costs, transportation, etc.
74% of statewide reduction in High Tax Aid is on LI!

5. Differences across Counties
Nassau lost $9.2 million more in High Tax Aid than it received in Gap Elimination Adjustment Restoration
94.9% of the increase in Suffolk County aid is explained by expense reimbursements

6. A little bit of history…
When aid is increasing, LI receives only “its share”
When aid is decreasing, LI pays back more than “its share”

7. Island Wide Data (117 Districts)

8. Impact on LI Property Taxes

9. Are LI Budgets out of control?
Measured in 1990 dollars
LI aid per pupil declined by 14%!
LI expense per pupil increased by only 1.3% per year!

10. State Aid by County since 08-09
The loss in aid over the past 5 years (Public SAMS)

11. ARRA – EJF – Exec Proposal
To be fair – we did get some relief in and the proposal for does increase aid to Long Island

12. Part II: Fund Balance

13. A Tale of Two Districts
Roslyn is lucky to have significant resources, does not depend upon state aid, and a current budget that is sufficient to meet the needs of its pupils
Sachem has limited resources outside of state aid which has been cut drastically and a budget which has already been trimmed in response to taxpayer demands

18. Where did the fund balance go? (percent changes from prior year)

19. Did State Aid have any impact?
Data taken directly from Public SAMS

20. Percentage Increases

21. Fund Balance Impacts

22. Island Wide Data

23. Reserve Management Assumptions
State Aid will continue to grow and be 12% of our budget even if our budgets increase
Assigned fund balance in year 1 is 2% of our budget
Unassigned fund balance in year 1 is 4% of budget

24. Budget - Expense = Assigned

25. Budget - Expense > Assigned
CQ zone

26. Budget - Expense < Assigned
RP zone

27. Can Nassau be far behind?

28. Questions?
Please remember that the real expert in your district is your business official and your superintendent
If I could be of assistance, I would be happy to talk to them. I can be reached at
Joseph C. Dragone
Assistant Superintendent for Business
Roslyn Union Free School District
300 Harbor Hill Road – Post Office Box 367
Roslyn, New York 11576 e:
v:  (516)
f:   (516)
c:  (631)