Casey Goodall, TUSD Assistant Superintendent for Business Services, told the board during the Friday night meeting that the district’s expenditures of $116,717,955 is short of the state funding numbers by approximately $4.4 million and TUSD won’t know what funds will be available until after the Nov. 6 election. No members of the public were present during the meeting.
Goodall said the San Joaquin County Board of Education want districts to know that a failure of the tax initiative could mean a reduction of $441 per student. With approximately 15,000 students, Tracy Unified would take about a $6.9 million reduction in its approved budget.
He said the district can only afford to lose $275 per student.
Director of Financial Services Reed Call told the board that the loss of $275 per student could be covered by their reserve funds, but not much more. He did say that projected enrollment for 2012-2013 included 25 fewer students in August, but those numbers tend to fluctuate during the first few weeks of school.
If approved, Brown education tax initiative plans to generate about $9 billion annually by increasing the income tax by 3 percent on households earning more than $1 million dollars; by 2 percent on households earning $600,000 to $1,000,000; and by 1 percent on households earning $500,000 to $600,000. All of those increases are slated to expire after seven years.
The other aspect to the initiative would be an increase of the state sales tax by a quarter of a cent for four years.
Goodall said it was his understanding that the governor feels education has taken enough financial budget hits in recent years, and that schools shouldn’t have to endure additional cuts this year.
He said if the initiative passes, Tracy Unified — the largest school district in the Tracy and Mountain House area — would see revenues still be short by about $4.4 million bringing revenue to $112,332,242 at the start of the 2012-13 FY beginning on July 1.
It’s a financial loss that the district can sustain for at least three years, Goodall said.
But those totals only pencil out, Goodall said, if a majority of voters pass the initiative that would provide more funding to public schools by generating funds to balance the state budget. He said in the past his financial projections have been made five years into the future, but right now they can’t even predict the next school year.
“There’s a dramatic difference if it (tax) passes or not,” Goodall said. “November changes everything.”
Board members expressed their concerns over leaving the districts financial future in the hands of the voters.
“They’re saying to the public you’d better be informed,” board member Walter Gouveia said. “It’s (cuts) already effected two generations of kids. I don’t like taxes, but my grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to benefit. It’s cheaper to educate children than incarcerate.”
Board member Greg Crandall encouraged voters that need to become educated about the ballot initiative before casting a vote in November.
Sales tax is already high enough for the area. As a business owner, I do not want to lose any more money to surrounding cities because officials keep raising sales taxes.
Unfortunately if they get a budget cut its the teachers who get sacked, not the fat leeching officials making big bucks.....the kids suffer while the administrative staffs at TUSD and City keep getting paid for doing precious nothing!
Beginning teacher salary: $35757
Mid-range teacher salary: $50042
Highest teacher salary: $66080
Average principal salary (elementary): $73083
Average principal salary (middle): $78370
Superintendent salary: $140,000
California budget lie- California hides BILLIONS from taxpayers
http://realityblogger.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/california-government-hides-billions-from-taxpayers/
http://cafr1.com/Herman.html
after you read all these articles, tell me, do you EVER want to give California one more cent? And do they really need it? Absolutely NOT.
I highly suggest watching a documentary called The Cartel and see exactly how education funds are misappropriated. We demand accountability NOW.
Teachers are employees and they are in the classroom.
Someone has to order the books, paper and pencils that students use.
Someone has to clean the bathroom.
Someone has to maintain the safety of the campus.
On and on...
I agree that money management is a big albatross, but learn about it and offer suggestions instead of using such a broad-brush "get rid of employees".
I BELIEVE ....... That's called: "Counting chickens before they're hatched" ? .....
This is no way to budget. In my home budgeting, and I am sure that of almost everyone else, I dont count on any money I am not already getting. Actually I dont even count on having the salary I am currently getting.
If the folks doing the budgeting are incapable of realizing that they cant count on money they dont have then it is time to replace them or find a way to simply do away with them. Something creative like having the state budget school funds and send the money directly to teachers (with an appropriate electronic expense tracking system in place of course). I realize there are numerous challenges with such an approach and it is admittedly far from fully thought out (havent considered facilities, etc) but those are the sort of novel ideas we need to think about, because what is in place right now is a failed system.
The largest problem with the public schools is that they are too top heavy. They are full of highly paid adminsitrative folks. That is why the charter schools are doing so much better. They dont have to spend so much of their funds on executive salaries. If the Ca public can get up the will to do it, 80% of those admin folks could be eliminated.