Medina school district pushing for budget with no tax increase
MEDINA – The school district is working to present a budget to the public in May that won’t raise property taxes.
The 2017-18 school budget reduced taxes by 0.22 percent, down from $8,660,915 to $8,641,861. The Medina Board of Education and school administrators are trying to keep the tax levy at $8,641,861 in the 2018-19 budget.
The district has steadily been reducing taxes in recent years. The 2013-14 budget had a $9,135,636 tax levy. Medina has reduced school taxes by $493,775 since then, a 5.4 percent decrease.
The district has already cut more than $600,000 from early budget requests for the next school year. It still has about $385,000 to either cut and find more revenues in order to keep taxes flat.
The district expects the final state budget will help fill the gap. The district also will keep looking for ways to reduce spending, said Marc Graff, director of finance and human resources.
Medina’s total school aid in the governor’s budget is up by $129,429 to $24,585,767, about two thirds of the district’s budget that will be about $37 million in 2018-19.
Mark Kruzynski, the district superintendent, said he expects state legislators will push for more school aid as part of budget negotiations.
Will the extra aid cover the entire $385,000 gap? If it doesn’t, Kruzynski said school officials need to find more reductions in the budget. There is a chance the Legislature could come through with more aid beyond the $385,000. If that happens, Kruzynski said some of the cuts thus far might not have to be made. Some of the reductions identified so far for 2018-19 include an elementary summer school program and not replacing some retiring teachers.
