Board approves tax-levy limit; district finance chief outlines salaries, benefits and debt-service pressures

Assistant Superintendent for Management Michael Pauls told the Homer Central School District Board of Education that the district will set a tax-levy limit of $734,514, a 4.19% increase, and the board voted to authorize him to enter that number in the state portal.

Paul s said the action before the board was to establish the levy limit in the state system, not to set the final levy the district will use when it adopts a budget. "At this point, we are not choosing the amount that we're going to use in the budget," Pauls said. He said that if the board ultimately wants to exceed the established limit it would require a supermajority vote and that a failed budget could trigger a revote on June 17 or force a contingent budget that would restrict tax increases and reduce spending.

Pauls framed the district's principal budget "knowns" as salaries, benefits and debt service. He presented three years of actuals and the current budgeted year, and said contract negotiations and staffing changes are the main drivers of projected increases. He told the board the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) contribution multiplier is about 9.9—10.1% and noted an offset of roughly $100,000 to the Employees' Retirement System (ERS) cost because many new hires enter at a lower ERS tier. Pauls also said a prior teacher negotiation produced about $200,000 in health-insurance savings for the district.

On debt service, Pauls listed the district's prior projects (a 2013 project, a turf project and an energy-performance project) and the current 2021 project as the items shaping the district's long-term debt profile. He described the district's practice of refinancing older issues and said projections for the current bond were provided by the district's fiscal advisers; he stressed that final numbers will change as the district completes later phases of the current project.

Pauls said the board will review preliminary revenue and expense estimates at its March 11 meeting and that the board may hold workshops to examine the numbers in more detail before adopting a final budget.

The board approved the motion to record the levy limit in the state portal; the transcript records the board saying "Aye" and notes abstentions, but a roll-call tally with named votes was not provided in the spoken record excerpt.