On April 8th, the Middletown Board of Education rejected the superintendent's 2010/11 budget proposal due to its inclusion of a large increase in school taxes. Although Dr. Eastwood attributed this tax increase to the state's withholding of funds, he failed to mention the contribution his unbridled development of programs has had to the current budget problem. Last year, for the 2009/10 fiscal year, approximately 5.3 million dollars was taken from the unstructured reserve fund to supplement state and local taxes to underwrite program development and minimize an increase in school taxes.
Unfortunately this year, the governor's recent withholding of state funds has exacerbated an already tight fiscal situation. In the proposed budget, funds for some of last year's new expenses need to be financed by taxes rather than being paid for by the reserve fund. In addition, the deficit in the state's appropriation of funds also must be supplied by more taxes or budget cuts. Given the district's unrestricted development of new programs, the administration must share some of the blame for the current fiscal shortfall. Although the quality and need for these programs has never been brought into question, Dr. Eastwood does not appear to recognize that the cost for financing these programs has gone beyond the capacity of the people within the district to pay. In addition, many of these programs were developed by grants, and the cost of these programs will eventually fall onto the district taxpayers.
In the current proposed budget, Dr. Eastwood has placed the taxpayers between a rock and a hard place. Either accept his large tax increase, or accept an equally large tax increase mandated by a contingency budget. On April 8th, the board rejected Dr. Eastwood,s budget based on an understanding of this situation. At that time , the Board directed him to further reduce the projected school budget for next year. Rather than take the board's suggestions, it appears that Dr. Eastwood will attempt to ram his previous budget through during a special meeting called on April 14. It is now up to the taxpayer to reject the current proposed budget. Granted, by default, they will be accepting an equally costly contingency budget, but the public will send a clear message to Dr. Eastwood to stop the growth in program development which they can not afford.
