Trapasso reelected while
Hastings returns to trustee position
This year’s vote for the 2013-14 school budget wound up being a far more subdued affair than last year’s vote, which had the pall of the first year’s instituting of the New York State Property Tax Cap hanging over it. Residents approved passage of this year’s proposed $107,602, 366 budget by a margin of 1,436 (65.4 percent) in favor versus 760 against. This year’s expenses are $3,386,838 (3.25 percent) higher than what was passed for 2012-13.
A number of factors contributed to this up tick in the budget. Mandated pension contributions represented a major expense, as did debt service, which came to a total of $6,578,879, an increase of $605,029 over last year. This represents the combined monies owed for three bonds: the 2009 School Investment Bond, the 2005 middle school athletic field bond and the 1999 bond for district-wide building improvements. It also includes the district’s Energy Performance Contract (EPC).
And with the portion of revenue taxpayers are responsible for being raised by only 3.19 percent (with STAR), it fell under the maximum allowable tax levy of 3.91 percent, which required only a simple majority of 50 percent plus 1 to pass. In addition, 668 less residents showed up to cast votes this time around.
Elsewhere, the Garden City Board of Education wound up having trustee Barbara Trapasso get reelected by 1,252 votes while candidate Laura Hastings returned to the board by way of 1,268 votes after stepping down last year. Both candidates ran unopposed.
