Schools
Lakewood School District Unveils 5-Year Budget Plan
Losses could run deep; however, school levy not needed again until 2013.
At Monday’s Lakewood meeting, treasurer Rick Berdine took the podium to address the district’s five-year financial forecast for fiscal years 2011 through 2015. L
The potential losses could run deep, and school officials say the wildcard cut that could turn a manageable situation into a potentially disastrous one is the proposed accelerated elimination of lucrative Tangible Personal Property Tax (TPP) Reimbursements that Ohio’s school districts receive each year.
Originally, the reimbursements were set to expire in 2018, but given the state’s $6.5 billion budget shortfall created by a sluggish economy and the drying up of federal stimulus funds, Gov. John Kasich wants to cut about $1.2 billion in TPP funding, which would eliminate the reimbursements by 2013.
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The Ohio Senate is currently reviewing Kasich’s budget and the modifications that were made to it by the Ohio House, and the senate may decide to leave the TPP funding as is to help the districts.
If Kasich’s $3.1 billion in cuts to education go forward — which include reductions to state aid — TPP and electricity deregulation payments, then Lakewood is looking at a $6.3 million funding loss over the next two school years alone.
Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
And according to Berdine’s projections, the district’s expenditures would exceed its revenue by $10 million by 2015.
However, the outlook could have been much darker if Lakewood school officials hadn’t proactively made millions in reductions over the last several years.
Since 2004, the district has either cut or reduced expenditures by $12 million, with another two million in cuts planned in 2012 and 2013.
Given the district's fiscal prudence, board member Betsy Shaughnessy said that she and her peers are confident that they won’t need to put another levy on the ballot until 2013, as originally promised.
Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly will release the state’s two-year budget by the end of the month, at which point the district will know to a better extent what kind of fiscal hardships lie ahead.
