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District won’t need to borrow to hit budget
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown City School District won’t have to borrow any money to end this fiscal year with a balanced budget.
Treasurer William Johnson told the state fiscal- oversight commission that controls district spending that, unlike the last three years, Youngstown won’t be looking for any state solvency loan assistance.
Youngstown has borrowed $28.4 million from the state since the district was placed in fiscal emergency in November 2006. The loans enabled the district to close out each fiscal year in the black.
Each loan has to be repaid over a two-year period, and Johnson said Thursday the last of the debt owed to the state — $1.5 million — will be paid off next fiscal year.
The district still will owe itself “a couple million” at that point, he said, a reference to Youngstown’s borrowing nearly $5.3 million from money temporarily available in one of its own bond funds to balance the budget last year.
That debt is being repaid over a four-year period at the rate of just over $1.3 million annually, with the first payment being made this year.
Youngstown expects to end this year with a $3.9 million general-fund balance. The district has cut some $32 million in spending over the last three years as it works to return to fiscal solvency. About 520 jobs have been cut in the process.
The district is looking at an additional $1.7 million in cuts next year that will include the elimination of 29 more positions, but further cuts may yet be required.
The district is getting about $4.8 million a year in new revenue from a 9.5-mill bond levy approved by voters, but that levy expires in fiscal 2013. Once that additional revenue disappears, the district could slip back into deficit spending, Johnson has warned.