Funding Forecasts

Today's Journal....

Funding forecasts for school budgets: Tough road ahead
Without help, some area school districts will face difficult choices

Five-year forecasts for local schools show some districts will have to make tough choices if drastic changes are not made in their cash flow, a Middletown Journal examination shows

Middletown has forecast a $4.4 million deficit for 2016.

Middletown will need an increase in revenue or it will be faced with drastic cuts, according to its forecast.

I THOUGHT WE HAD ALREADY MADE "DRASTIC CUTS" ACCORDING THE THE SCHOOL PEOPLE. HAVE WE OR HAVEN'T WE? SEEMS TO BE THE TERM "DRASTIC CUTS" HAS BEEN MENTIONED PRIOR TO THIS BEING REPORTED.

“The forecast gives us a vision of what changes we need to make to get to that point, when we need to start educating the public on that need,” said Kelley Thorpe, Middletown City Schools treasurer. “We’re at that point now, looking at 2013-14 (for a possible levy) unless something changes with revenues.”

NO THORPE, YOU DON'T KEEP ATTACKING THE TAXPAYER'S WALLET. THE WELL HAS RUN DRY. YOU HAVE MANAGED TO EMPTY OUR POCKETS WITH PAST LEVIES. YOU DOWNSIZE YOUR OPERATION TO ACCOMODATE THE MONEY YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH. IT'S A SIMPLE CONCEPT AND ONE ALL OF US USE IN THE HOME BUDGET. YOU SPEND WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO SPEND. YOU GET RID OF WHAT YOU CAN NO LONGER AFFORD. NO EXTRAVAGANCE, NO TOYS, NO LUXURY- ONLY THE BASICS NOW. IT AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE. IF YOU HAVEN'T MADE IT TO THE POINT OF "DRASTIC", BETTER CUT MORE. JMO

Neil, IMO school levies are like flies at a picnic. They are pests, people want them to go away, but they always return. There is no such thing as a levy to prevent them from coming back for more of your money. They run a game of starting with an emergency levy- always explained as "one time only". Then move to stage two- the infamous "continuing levy" which they claim they need to maintain the original needs of the emergency levy. And finally, the continuing levy becomes the "permanent levy" which never goes away. This is the time honored game they run on the voters. They rely on the voters forgetting what transpired from emergency status to permanent status. It never ends. They never have enough money. Like the city, they need that money to fund the out-of-control salaries in the admin ranks and the teacher's union demands that they have continually cowered down to over the years. It will get worse. They now use the claim that they are receiving less state money so they will be asking for more from us taxpayers. And the taxpayers will eventually give them what they want because they will keep coming back to the property owner until the owner gets so tired of hearing it, they just give in to shut them up.