Oswego City School District taxpayers will be heading to the polls Tuesday for a budget revote, choosing whether or not to support the amended $67,126,271 budget that reinstated nine positions.

The original 2008-09 school year budget of $66.59 million was defeated during the first vote May 20. The positions added back into next year’s budget include at the elementary level, two art teachers, two music teachers, one physical education teacher and one librarian. A technology teacher will be reinstated at the secondary level and three hall monitors at the high school.

The newly proposed budget contains a 5.37 percent tax rate increase. The defeated budget held a 3.81 percent tax rate increase. The new budget is still nearly $400,000 below the maximum contingency budget.

The new budget would have an estimated tax rate of $21.97 per $1,000 assessed, an increase of $1.20 per $1,000 from this year. According to Pete Colucci, the head of business for the district, a home valued at $70,000 with a STAR exemption would pay approximately $48 annually. A $70,000 home without the exemption would pay an estimated $84.

According to Superintendent David Fischer, if the amended budget is defeated, the school board can choose to adopt the defeated budget as is or meet to make more cuts in the budget.

School Board President Maggie Tiballi said that New York state does not allow for a third vote, noting that there is no time for one because a budget must be secured by July 1. “This one would have to without a vote,” Tiballi said. “We wouldn’t be increasing it again; I didn’t think it made sense the first time.”

Oswego was one of 51 districts throughout the state that defeated their budgets. There were 625 districts that passed their budgets (92.42 percent).

In Oswego County alone, three districts, or 33 percent, defeated their budgets. Other than Oswego, this includes Altmar Parish Williamstown and Hannibal. The other remaining six districts approved their budgets.

In an online poll conducted by The Palladium-Times, overall 55 percent of the 855 people who voted said that taxes weighed more heavily on their budget decision. In New York state, 52 percent of people said that academic and program cuts were more important than taxes.

“I think that when you looked at the exit poll, people were pretty much split down the middle about what they were mad about,” said board member Dave White.
He noted that adding the positions back at the elementary level was a positive thing and that some problems can be avoided later on if they are addressed at an earlier age.

“I would encourage everyone to get out and vote,” White said. “That’s the most important thing.” He noted that this is the best way to let elected officials know how you feel.

Board vice president Sally Nettles said she would be voting for the new budget and that she voted for the last budget. “I may not completely agree with what was put back in, but I will support it,” she said.

Board member Fred Maxon pointed out that the district is not in the habit of having to hold a revote for the budget. “This year’s budget, between the cutting of the positions and the raising of the taxes, is difficult for anyone to swallow,” he said. “I guess it will be interesting to see what comes back with the budget standing on its own.”

Maxon noted that there are no propositions or school board candidates attached to the revised budget. The two propositions that were voted upon May 20 included spending $479,480 on five new school buses and establishing a $10 million capital reserve fund. The school bus proposition passed while the capital reserve fund was defeated.

Board member Jim Tschudy said the board heard a lot about the defects of the cuts made at the elementary level. “This revision is an attempt to acknowledge that,” he said. “Should the budget pass, it should tell us that the community thinks those positions are important.”

Tschudy said if the budget fails, then that tells the board the community feels that financial support in the schools is more important than reinstating positions.
The polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Absentee ballots can be picked up at the district clerk’s office in the lower level of the education center located on East First Street.

Voters will go to their regular school district polling places: The 1st Ward in Oswego will vote at the McCrobie Buildings; the 2nd Ward at Fitzhugh Park Elementary School; 3rd Ward voters at Frederick Leighton Elementary School; 4th Ward at the Education Center; the 5th Ward voters at Kingsford Park Elementary School; and 6th Ward voters will vote at Charles E. Riley Elementary School. Residents of the town of Minetto and Volney vote at Minetto Elementary School while the Oswego Town Hall is the scene for voters from Oswego Town and Sterling. The Scriba Justice Center will be the setting for voting for Scriba residents.