The Right Number: $56,760,387.62

Posted by Len Mullen on February 04, 2010 at 06:24:35:

I got a few phone calls last night. Most wanted to know if I planned to offer an amendment to reduce the approved budget by 10%. Most thought 10% was too drastic and would not be approved. I have to admit that is sounds like a lot to me. I might still vote for such an amendment, though, because $61,838,543 for a default budget is offensive to me and we are not allowed to amend that.

So, what is the right number?

actual spend for 2008 was $53,816,390.62 (per La Salle)
actual spend for 2009 was $55,706,169.28 (they're still spending)
approved budget for 2010 is $61,764,677 (default budget is $61,838,543)

3.8% inflation rate for 2008 (per http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/)
2.7% inflation rate for 2009 (per http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/)

If you apply inflation for 2008 to the 2008 actual spend, you get: $55,861,413.46
If you apply inflation for 2009 to the 2009 calculated spend, you get: $57,369,671.62 for a 2010 budget.

Assuming all money spent in 2008 was money well spent, $57,369,671.62 strikes me as a reasonable budget for 2010.

Since the raises in the teacher contract would be part of the inflation, you'd want to subtract those from the budget: $57,369,671.62 - $609,284 = $56,760,387.62

$61,764,677 - $56,760,388 = $5,004,289 correction which is about 8%

So, I don't think a 10% cut in the approved budget is draconian. The real question is what have we been approving? Fact is that the default budget has been about the same as the approved budget for years ($100k difference last year, for instance) and the school budget has been rising at a rate higher than inflation despite enjoying a fixed cost for the facilities for years...

$61,764,677 / $53,816,390.62 = 1.15 -- a 15% increase over actual spend for 2008
including the teacher contract warrant, ($61,764,677 + $609,284) / $53,816,390.62 = 1.16 -- a 16% increase over actual spend for 2008

For me, these numbers are much harder to swallow...especially when you have to wash them down with a high school that has been ranked 'in need of improvement' for five consecutive years.

• DanvilleDelivery.com: For the Rest of Us

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup

Name    : 
E-Mail  : 
Subject : 

Comments:


This message board now requires a password for posting.
Our aim is to prevent spambots from attacking the board - 
 not to keep users like you from posting. Please enter 
 the letters as you see them to the left (match case).

Optional Link URL : 
Link Title        : 
Optional Image URL: