Anyone in attendance at the
August 2, 2017 meeting saw and heard the superintendent and business administration speak against using additional
state aid for tax relief. The audience
was told that a tax reduction would affect the Board’s ability to increase next
year’s budget because there is a 2% cap.
Some pulled out the all the scare tactics. Here are two quotes that appeared in the
Record:
Business Administrator Marc Capizzi cautioned the board that the
additional state aid should be treated as a one-time item. "Because this
is potentially non-reoccurring money, I recommend being careful with how
we use the money," he said. "We don't know if it will be here in the
future."
Superintendent Frank Quatrone agreed, saying lowering taxes too much this year
could have "devastating" effects on the district next year and could
result in cuts.
However, when it came time to
use additional state aid to increase appropriations, Board members were
informed that the 2% cap for 2018-2019 is NOT based on an adjusted/reduced tax
levy. The cap is based on the original
2017-2018 budget certified for taxes.
As you have seen, Lodi school budgets
have been padded so much that the Board was able to hoard $7.5M Lodi tax
dollars in just a few years for an unnecessary administration building. But when it came time for some tax relief, those
that padded budgets and hoarded millions pretended that Armageddon was coming.
