by justin strawser
The superintendents of Line Mountain and Southern Columbia Area school districts admit they're not quite sure how they're going to fill their million plus deficits, especially now that governor's proposed spending plan is not a favorable one for the second year in a row.
"The funding is the same as it was last year. Last year's funding was lower than the year before. As far as the district's concerned, the same funding won't pay for all the increased costs the district encounters every year," SCA Superintendent Charlie Reh said Thursday.
"If we don't get a little more revenue, things don't get cheaper. Everything is a little more expensive every year. There's no way expenses can stay the same. A book costs a little more than the year before," LM Superintendent Dave Campbell said.
Reh said the pension funds are increasing $300,000, health care costs at $200,000, salaries according to union contracts at $300,000 and debt service at $125,000.
"You also have to look at fuel and maintenance and normal operating costs increasing for the district by $100,000 to $150,000," he added.
In all, that's more than a million dollar hole in the budget that needs to be made up. If taxes are raised by 2.2 percent according to the maximum amount allowed by Act 1, that's only $125,000 in new revenue and still $900,000-plus needed for Southern.
"We have to make cuts and adjustments and that's what we're working on now," Reh said.
Campbell said Line Mountain is in a similar situation, with more than a million dollars needed to balance the budget. This includes $565,000 increases in medical insurance and $210,000 increases in salaries.
To make it up, there has to be cuts, but the question is where.
"The budget is there on display for people to look at. Tell us where to cut. There's not a whole lot more we can do," Campbell said.
If you cut extracurricular such as band, chorus, football, clubs and everything else, that's only $200,000, he said.
"That's peanuts in our budget, but the amount of kids it embraces is the most in bang for our buck in the school," he said.
The district will be looking into all their options before the final passing of the budget later this year.
"We'll get it down. We'll find a way. We got to find a way," Campbell said.