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Treasurer: School finances good for now
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The city schools’ treasurer believes the district is in good shape financially, despite the facts that real-estate-tax delinquencies total about $9 million and the state still has Youngstown rated in fiscal emergency.
“It’s moving in the right direction,” William Johnson told the city school board finance committee Wednesday as he gave an update on the district’s five-year financial forecast.
The forecast shows a positive year-end balance of nearly $3.6 million as of June 30, and that number will improve to $7.7 million in fiscal 2011 and $10.1 million in fiscal 2012.
But it could begin dropping in fiscal 2013, Johnson warned, noting the expiration of a four-year, 9.5-mill tax levy that year. The levy is supposed to be producing $5.3 million annually in new revenue, although Johnson told the board in February that it was generating about $4.8 million a year.
Nevertheless, all of that revenue will cease in 2013 unless the board seeks a renewal of the levy or proposes a replacement levy to voters, Johnson said, adding that the alternative will be additional cuts.
The district has trimmed spending by $32 million, eliminating about 520 jobs over the last three years, and is looking at eliminating 29 more jobs and cutting an additional $1.7 million in spending next year.
Without that continued additional revenue from the levy, the forecast shows the year-end balance declining to about $9.1 million in fiscal 2013, $6 million in fiscal 2014 and $2 million in fiscal 2015.
Johnson will be giving a public update on the district’s financial status at Tuesday’s school board meeting in the Irene L. Ward Building, 20 W. Wood St. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
He advised the finance committee that the forecast includes some unanticipated loss in state transportation funding as well as the need to catch up on six months of AFSCME employee retirement fund payments due the State Employee Retirement System.
Youngstown owes the retirement system $1.1 million and will be paying that debt off at the rate of $200,000 a year for the next six years, Johnson said, explaining that the funding shortfall affects all public school districts in the retirement system because of a six-month difference in the SERS and school district calendar years that has existed for years.
SERS recently informed schools that it now wants that money, he said.
The state is cutting Youngstown’s special- education transportation projected funding by $400,000 due to errors the district made in reporting ridership data, Johnson said.
The state already had paid Youngstown $696,000 this year before the error was discovered in an audit, he said, adding that the state subsidy for the entire year should have been only $458,000.
It’s taking back the overpayment by reducing overall state support to the district by that amount, he said.