At the Common Council Finance Committee meeting last night, city treasurer Heather Campbell presented her projections of the effect of the COVID-19 shutdown could have on city revenue. Her analysis, which can be reviewed here, charted a possible low impact and a high impact. The low impact scenario anticipates a net drop in cumulative revenue, excluding property tax, of $1.3 million. The high impact scenario sees a $1.9 million drop.
The initial reaction to the report from Council president Tom DePietro, who chairs the Finance Committee, was: "We'd have to hit the fund balance if we don't get some assistance." He then observed, "If there were another lockdown, we'd be tapped out."
John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward) suggested, "We have to look at cuts."
Campbell said she was still waiting to get the information about the 5 and 10 percent cuts to each department's budget that the mayor had requested but noted that departmental expenses are less than half the budget.
DePietro asked, "If the school district is hit by a 20 percent reduction, will they try to make it up in property taxes?"
In answer, Campbell noted, "The school budget increases at a higher percentage than the city or county does." She also shared the observation that "the city cannot increase taxes to the amount they should because of school taxes." She also commented that the city has "increased expenses at a rate that far outweighed our ability to pay for them."
On the subject of the school budget, last night the HCSD Board of Education voted to approve a 2020-2021 budget of $50,684,738. The budget is a 1.79 percent increase over the current year, or $892,275. It will mean a 1.99 percent increase in the tax levy, or an average increase of $29.84 for each $100,000 of assessed value.
A Footnote: In his conversation with Mayor Kamal Johnson this afternoon, Congressmember Antonio Delgado said that if the HEROES Act were to be passed by the U.S. Senate in its current form (which seems unlikely), the City of Hudson would be getting $2 million in federal assistance.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK
Let us take a look the school system nd how it ranks. https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NY/district/14940/search.aspx
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that the school budget is a very high $ 50,000,000 dollars. That is alot of money. Could the school district cut the costs by 10 % and perform better ?
Sometimes money is not the only answer to these types of problems.
It is easy to find how much Hudson spends on each student compared to other areas. Are local parents involved in the school system and what it delivers for the money ?
These are questions we have to ask in a crisis. Much money can be spent, but is it spent wisely ??
Look up the statistics on Google and you will find many answers.
After 20 years of school budget approvals my school tax was $8,000. before the assessment. Without a budget, after the assessment, my school tax bill suddenly skyrocketed to $14,000. A virtual cash rocket windfall across the boards for the HCSD. Now we have schools closed from the covid 19 plague. Will someone please explain to me how an additional budget increase of any percentage is remotely credible ?
ReplyDeletePensions!
DeleteI did a little more research. it is not easy to find accurate and simple figures that are clear.
ReplyDeleteIt appears the the Hudson City School District has 1,676 students in total for K through 12.
the budget is $50,000,000 plus this year 2020-2021. Yes,50 million dollars.
If you divide the number of students into the total budget, then the cost per student is $ 29,832.00. That would be one of the highest costs per student in the entire nation,and even exceed the costs of New York City.
There are 431 school systems in upstate New York. the Hudson City School System is ranked # 411 out of the 431. That is the lowest 5 % out of all upstate school systems.
Those are the numbers in simple terms for 2020 to 2021.
Ratings should be much higher and costs in this small city should be alot lower. It just makes sense.
A significant chunk of that number is pension obligations.
DeleteYour analysis ignores the primary issue underscoring both the excessive cost of the District and its overall poor performance: it's attempting to serve a hybrid of urban, suburban and rural constituencies -- and each has its own unique challenges. I don't know how folks in the outer 4 communities that send their kids to HCSD feel, but clearly the citizens of Hudson itself feel they're getting short shrift from the District.
DeleteThe solution, perhaps, is to break it up: the City District should serve Hudson alone with perhaps the northern portion of Greenport, too. The other communities should be reassigned to neighboring districts. Of course this is a massive project but right now is likely the most opportune time to begin the work that this will require. The status quo is clearly no longer viable.
I think that the combined districts were to"save" money but that ended up not being the case. the opposite happened. you have one of the most expensive school systems in the State,but one of the worst performers. Pay More, Get Less -- the New York State Motto.
DeleteIt too bad the students are the victims of the adults here.
In heather Campbell's "scenarios," what does it mean "excluding property taxes"? With the preliminary "roll" out, shouldn't she be able to do some rough estimates? And where is Mayor Johnson on the property tax assessment issue? He promised a Housing Commissioner, who could have been tasked with looking at the property tax assessment impact on housing costs, but he's putting Galvan in charge of that Department.
ReplyDeleteGALVAN ??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
DeleteLOL OMG
Byrne Fone was right after all.
DeleteEnlighten us. What does this mean?
DeleteI live in Livingston. On our side of the road our school taxes go to Hudson. The other side goes to Germantown.
ReplyDeleteI've been an education journalist for most of the last 20 years (and spent 5 years on the HCSD Board of Ed) and can assure you that, except on the extremes, there is very little connection between money and academic performance. Even high poverty school districts like HCSD can overcome dismal academic results with a focused delivery of good curricula. We delivered our junior journalism program to HCSD's 5th-graders, helping raise state ELA scores 11 points in just one year. Read what former PBS Newshour producer Mike Salz wrote about it last year: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rLZEKZ-W50d6vMXNxw4PpsGaU-ZOvb0Q/view
ReplyDelete