“The overall number of school districts in fiscal stress has essentially remained steady the past three years”, said DiNapoli. The allowable levy growth factor for the 2016-17 school year budgets will be 1.0012 percent.
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A total of 82 districts were found to be facing some degree of fiscal stress in the last school year, compared with 90 districts in 2013-14 and 87 in 2012-13. “Although some local governments can rely on available reserve funds to bridge the gap, others may need to take a hard look at operations to find ways to cut costs to stay under the cap”.
In the Mid-Hudson, only the East Ramapo Central School District in the Spring Valley area is classified with significant stress.
Six districts experienced decreases of 40 percentage points or more in their fiscal stress score: including Johnson City School District in Broome County and Peekskill in Westchester County.
No schools in Jefferson or Lewis counties were listed in DiNapoli’s report.
The highest concentration of school districts in fiscal stress were in Central New York and Long Island.
Currently, the Candor School District in Tioga County is listed as “Susceptible to Fiscal Stress”, with a fiscal score of 28.3 percent.
Four districts had their fiscal stress soar over the past year, including two districts in rural Fulton County and Rhinebeck in Dutchess County.
About 77 percent of school districts statewide were not in a fiscal stress category in any of the three years that the calculations have been made.
Eighteen systems in Nassau and Suffolk were designated as being “susceptible to fiscal stress” previous year. The percentage scores are based on financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, short-term borrowing and patterns of operating deficits.
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According to a research report issued today with the fiscal stress scores, school districts found to be in fiscal stress share a number of common characteristics. Fiscally stressed districts are also more likely to have a shrinking property tax base, low budget support and a low graduation rate.
