TUF

This Year's BOE Budget
April 4, 2008

Both Chip and I have decided to support the BOE budget. This is the first time that has ever happened. Our reasons are that the budget is under cap for the first time in 15 years and because the BOE has voted to support an outside independent review of their operations starting in the next three months.

This year's total budget is $136M including the debt service (money owed on loans). Subtract the debt and you get a direct operating cost of $124.6M. This exceeds last years cost of $115M. If you subtract out funding from other sources the levy (the amount that will come from property taxes) is $110M including debt or $104.4M if one only includes operating expenses. It is the $104.4M (the operations levy) that I'll focus on for now and it compares to last years $100.4M.

The State has strict limits on how much the operations levy can increase a year. It's set at 4% with a number of exceptions. The most important exception is for an increase in the number of students. This makes sense, if the number of students were to increase by 20% there would of course be no way to keep the spending increase to 4%.

This year the student numbers are expected to increase from 7966 to 8172 or an increase in 206 students. Thus the BOE is allowed to increase the budget by an additional $1.6M. Thus the total allowable tax levy on the operational budget could have gone as high as $106M. That means that the budget is $1.6M under cap. According to the BOE this is the first time that has happened in memory. To put that in perspective the most the Council has cut from a BOE budget is $1M. Kudos to the financial committee.

TUF has been out in front of attempting to have the BOE control it's budget but at the end of the day we do need to educate our children. All modern societies depend on that. I don't know what the right amount to spend is, maybe next year after we have an outside review I will, but I don't right now. What I do know is that the BOE has held themselves back on spending and opened themselves up to a transparent outside review of their operations.

In a few months we'll know what the correct budget should be. If the BOE gets good advice and doesn't take it then I'll lead the revolution. But right now I believe it's time to call a truce and let events play out.

Given all that, we ask you to suppress the impulse to vote no and join us, at least this one year, and pass the budget. Vote Yes.

Phil Kramer
Taxpayers United in Franklin