Arlington officials outline budget gap, recommend staffing reductions and weigh tax-levy options

Arlington Central School District finance staff presented updated revenue and expenditure estimates and outlined options to close a roughly $7 million budget shortfall, saying the district can narrow but not yet eliminate the gap without choices on taxes or further spending reductions.

Kevin Chilton, the district presenter on finance, told the board that the governor's executive proposal produced $471,357 more in state aid than the district had budgeted at its January 7 starting point. He said updated PILOT payments raised revenue by about $200,000. ‘‘From the time that we started on January 7, we've gotten updated or we've got the latest executive proposal, and that's going to be $471,357 more in state aid than I had estimated at the January 7,’’ Chilton said.

Chilton said the district is combining revenue gains with reductions in expenditure assumptions to reduce the shortfall. He said the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) employer rate estimate was…