For the first time since May 2000, the Oswego City School District budget failed Tuesday evening, prompting more questions than answers for district residents.

The first question being asked by taxpayers, students, faculty, administrators … and even Superintendent David Fischer is “What happens now?”

Fischer said he was not overly surprised with the final tally. “Overall, in terms of the budget, I suspected that it could be defeated,” Fischer said.

Citing reasons why the budget had been prepared as it had, Fischer said, “We explained at our budget workshops that we would be receiving at least $1 million less than originally anticipated from the state.” Another large factor playing into the final numbers proposed by the board was the assessment of the steam station, which had been assessed at $177 million in 2007 and dropped drastically to $104 million for this year. “Then, on May 1 after our budget had been submitted, the city told us the assessment was $160 million,” Fischer said.

According to Fischer, the higher assessed value of the steam station led some people to think that some of the cuts — made prior to the new assessment — could be reinstated. However, Fischer said, “The budget had been submitted, and we couldn’t change it.”

Revisiting the budget procedures Fischer explained, “When planning a budget, you have to look at the anticipated revenues and what expenditures are expected.

Obviously, you want to make sure that your expenditures do not exceed the revenues.”
Fischer said that he and the board of education considered rising prices and the financial difficulties that many families are facing when they assembled the budget.
“There are two types of people who are voting on a budget. I want to believe that when people vote ‘no’ on a budget, it does not have to do with them not valuing education because I know that most of them do, but they are voting this way because of the economic conditions of the budget.”

“On the other hand, you have another voter, who is very involved in the education system, our parents for example, who are normally the ‘pro-education’ vote that you will see voting ‘yes’ on a budget,” Fischer explained. “However, with this budget and the cuts that were made, many of these people were also against the budget … they are voting ‘no’ for the possibility that the board will then reinstate the cuts that were made. With both sides voting ‘no’ there is no way for it to pass.”

Fischer also explained his part in the budget process and how the cuts included came about to begin with. “I am not a member of the board of education, I simply give my advice in the budgeting process,” he explained. “... Sometimes the recommendations are not the most popular ones. If nothing changed and no cuts were made, we were looking at a 15.75 percent tax increase  … the board said that was unacceptable. They came back and said a fair figure would be between 6 and 7 percent … that left us with about 2.6 million to cut out.”

He explained that it was then asked of principals and directors in the district to try and find places that could be cut back. “It’s not what we wanted or what any of them wanted, but it was what we had to do.”

Fischer also addressed recent claims that direct blame at him or certain individuals for the budget’s failure or the proposed cuts. “It’s typical for people to sit back, point their finger and blame the administration. No administrators made any decisions here, only recommendations.” Regarding a direct claim recently alleging that he had given voters an ultimatum of facing the contingency budget if they did not vote in favor of the budget, Fischer said, “That is totally untrue. I never said that, I simply stated and explained what the contingency budget was. That would not even be my decision to do such a thing. Any final decisions that are imposed or adopted are ultimately the responsibility of the board.”

With all of this being said, Fischer went on to address the questions that now face the board, when will the budget be revised and what will be done differently this time around? “It is my hope that if we do revise and put another budget up for vote that the outcome will in no way affect the quality of the programs that we offer. Our budget did not eliminate any of the programs that we offer. I do not want to see any other cuts, and I am deeply concerned about this. I am equally concerned that whether by adding staff positions back into the budget, we would have positive support for it.

“It’s our job to come up with a budget that is fair and to be sure that we retain our quality educational programs for our students,” Fischer stated. “But, with our declining enrollment, it is also essential that we look for ways to save money, also.”

With a budget workshop tentatively scheduled for sometime next week, Fischer was unsure exactly what will be the next step in the process. “What will happen next … I don’t know.  I just hope that if a second proposal is put forth, whatever it may be, the community supports it.”