Schools looking to trim budget

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Youngstown City Schools superintendent Dr. Wendy Webb

By Harold Gwin

Despite levy passage, Youngstown officials are planning more cuts.

YOUNGSTOWN — Last week’s passage of a 9.5-mill school tax levy could bring the Youngstown city schools back to fiscal solvency by 2012.

That’s the preliminary projection William Johnson, district treasurer, gave to the school board’s finance committee Tuesday.

But Johnson warned that, without further reductions in spending, the district could be back in deficit spending by 2014.

The district has already trimmed spending by $26 million over the last two years, and Wendy Webb, superintendent, said she is preparing a list of suggested reductions that she will soon present to the board calling for $2.9 million in additional cuts in fiscal 2009-10.

Webb also told the committee that she is open to any other suggestions board members might have.

Board member Lock P. Beachum Sr. told Johnson that he wants a projection of just how much the district needs to cut to avoid any deficit in 2014. The superintendent and the board need a firm number to shoot for, he said.

Youngstown was placed in fiscal emergency by the state in November 2006 after running a budget deficit and has had a state-created fiscal oversight commission controlling its spending ever since.

The tax levy will generate $5.3 million per year in new revenue, but only for four years — the length of the levy approved by voters.

Board member Anthony Catale said the board and administration “are all on the same page” when it comes to the need for additional cuts. The district can’t go back to the public in four years for another 9.5-mill levy, he said.

Johnson’s preliminary fiscal forecast doesn’t directly reflect the likely need to borrow more solvency loan funds from the state to balance the annual budget, nor does it reflect the proposed additional $2.9 million in cuts.

The district has borrowed some $25 million over the last two years and repaid $7.5 million last year with another $12.7 million being repaid this year. The remainder — $5.2 million — will be repaid next year.

Even with the new tax levy beginning to take effect in 2009, however, Youngstown is still looking at a $6 million deficit at the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year and will have to borrow that additional amount from the state.

Additional borrowing could push back the emergence from deficit spending, Johnson said.

Shelley Murray, board president, said the board expects to see the superintendent’s plan for additional spending cuts at its Nov. 25 meeting.