BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
EDISON — The only way to get past the new spending caps imposed by the state are with waivers granted by the commissioner of the Department of Education or “spending growth limitation adjustments.”
But the state frowns upon waivers and the spending growth limitations are calculated on skewed figures, Edison School Business Administrator Daniel Michaud said.
The waivers allow schools to go over the 2.5-percent cap to cover certain costs, such as enrollment increases and transportation for nonstate mandated transfers (sending students out of district to private schools that offer special services that are needed but the district does not offer).
However, the spending growth limitation adjustments are based on sometimes disproportionate figures, Michaud said.
“The way the state comes up with the base budget is that it bases it on the previous year’s budget minus spending growth limitation for capital outlay,” he said. “What that means is that say we put a roof on one of the schools and it was budgeted for this year. Once the project is done, that amount we had budgeted for comes out of the budget, so we can’t budget for the same to get other maintenance projects done.”
And if the district has spent less than it anticipated in one area and wants to transfer the balance to a place it is needed, it can only transfer 10 percent., which hinders progress, Michaud said.
“In the past, the district could transfer from the general fund account any line item as long as the money stayed within the total budget,” he said. “Now we can’t transfer more than 10 percent of the total amount without commissioner approval.”
For example, if the district budgeted $300,000 for legal fees and only used $200,000, only $30,000 could be transferred somewhere else, he said.
If unanticipated revenue comes in, schools have to wait until the last three months of the fiscal year, or April, May or June, to put the money where it is needed, Michaud said.
“I don’t know why the state cares when I apply my miscellaneous revenue,” Michaud said. “I guess they have a reason. It just doesn’t make sense to me. None of it does. We really just need the state aid we’re entitled to and then maybe property taxes can be reduced.”