School budgetseason: Time to educate yourself

School superintendents across Long Island are visiting parent-teacher organizations this week and next, talking about how carefully they have budgeted for the coming school year. Their anxiety over the May 18 budget votes is high, partly because of the tea party-ish voter mood.

Residents need to review their individual school budgets to judge whether school leaders have done a good job holding down costs and taxes. Long Islanders spend $10.5 billion on their public schools, more than double the $5 billion combined budgets for Nassau and Suffolk counties. Education costs are a big reason for high property taxes.

One thing is clear: School officials have to stop stashing away money in restricted accounts, and use the funds to blunt the burden of this recession for taxpayers. The State Legislature should pass the needed law change to free this money.

Island schools have held their budgets to 2.36 percent growth, on average, for the coming year. At that rate, school leaders can make a fair argument that they've tried to keep costs down, with inflation predicted to be 2.2 percent. To do so, nearly every school district has also dipped into its unrestricted reserves - its "rainy day" fund.

However, there's another pot of money that school leaders are refusing to touch. Statewide, schools have tucked away hundreds of millions of dollars in restricted reserves. These funds are set aside for a specific purposes, like paying for workers' compensation claims or unused vacation or sick time upon retirement. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says there is $600 million in those accounts beyond what school districts should reasonably need for such expenses. But schools have continued to strand money there.

The State Legislature is correctly contemplating changing the law to allow schools to access those dollars. But last week, Democrats in the State Senate blocked a bill from Gov. David A. Paterson that would have freed the restricted reserves.

Keeping those funds off-limits is a smart political strategy for those who want to boost education aid from the state. One of the tie-ups in a state budget agreement, now five weeks overdue, is over how much to cut school funding. Paterson argues for $1.4 billion statewide, while the State Assembly's position is $800 million. Schools want to keep the pressure on the governor to back down, and having access to more money wouldn't help their position.

School leaders do have a valid point when they say they need some financial cushion: This spring, Paterson withheld a scheduled payment to schools of $2.1 billion and, without a budget agreement, it's possible state government will be unable, again, to meet this obligation at its new due date at the end of June. Schools have since been scrambling to cover expenses. But spending reserves doesn't have to be all or nothing. Allowing access to the money would give the schools the flexibility to pay bills without having to resort to borrowing.

But back to those school budget votes next week. It would be swell if voters could know the excess restricted fund balances available to their individual school districts. That would give each resident a very clear picture of whether their district can weather the governor's cuts. But calls this week to the governor's budget office and the comptroller's office were not successful in eliciting such data.

Meanwhile, the Long Island Regional Planning Council, which is funded by Suffolk and Nassau counties, has produced a report on controlling school costs. But the council is under pressure to keep the report private until after the May 18 votes. That may be because, due to a fluke of recessionary math, a budget defeat this year would mean zero growth for schools. Normally, when voters say "no," schools have still been able to add 4 percent for most budget items.

So how can a voter decide whether his or her school district has done a fair job budgeting this year? Residents can read their district budgets, found either online or in school buildings. But those won't point out which reserves the state comptroller considers "excess."

Residents should also consider the overall increase. Is it above or below the 2.36 percent Island average? It's also reasonable to ask whether school unions or administrators have shown they understand that taxpayers can't bear all the costs by agreeing to wage freezes. In several districts, they have.

Long Islanders treasure their schools. But we should be given a fuller financial picture before being asked to vote on school budgets. Yes, it's about the kids - but it's also about the health of our individual communities and a prosperous future for the entire Island.hN