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Voters reject city schools' budget proposal

By Howard B. Owens

Nearly 1,000 voters showed up at the polls today with 53.14 percent of them rejecting a proposed $3.9 million Batavia City Schools budget.

The tally: Yes, 448; no, 508.

In the board of education election:

(Incumbent ) Wayne Guenther - 594
Amy Barone - 764
Alfred McGinnis - 427

Mark Potwora

I would of thought more people would of showed up to vote..1500 people showed up for the Van Detta vote..Maybe it was weather..

May 17, 2011, 10:43pm Permalink
Lincoln DeCoursey

Even stakeholders tend to be disengaged until their budget is shot down. Probably the district can float an essentially-identical budget and get it passed just by playing the austerity card.

May 18, 2011, 2:01am Permalink
Bea McManis

If my math is correct, over 1700 showed up to vote. Considering the weather, this was more than I expected.

I found out tonight, that one of our frequent posters puts voices to the names of people who post here.
She said that my voice, in her head, is that of Julia Childs. I consider that quite a compliment since Julia has always been one of my favorites from when she was on PBS. One of my best visits to Washington DC was to see Childs' kitchen at the Smithsonian. Thanks, JoAnne.:)

May 18, 2011, 2:40am Permalink
John Roach

Bea,

You can not add all three votes together to see how many voted, since you could not vote for more than two and some only voted for one.

It seems some only voted on the budget and not the candidates since only about 956 voted on it.

May 18, 2011, 7:07am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

I asked Scott Rozanski how voter turnout compared to other years. Here's his response:

Batavia City School Budget Votes
2004-05 1059
2005-06 1070
2006-07 983
2007-08 873
2008-09 566
2009-10 454
2010-11 636
2011-12 956

FYI - there were 1539 that voted for the 3/29/11 special capital project vote.

He said there may be people in any of the budget vote years who only voted on candidates. No way of knowing for sure.

May 18, 2011, 10:51am Permalink
Dave Meyer

I read on the Daily News website that Gail Stevens was 'disappointed in the community' by the fact that the budget was voted down. She partly blamed the local blogosphere for that result.

I guess I'm disappointed that Ms. Stevens was disappointed. If you follow that logic, it's Howard Owens' fault because he decided to launch this website (which by the way is one of the best things that's happened to this community in quite some time).

I'm sure things would be much better if we didn't have a free press and more than one media outlet and the ability to comment on events within our community.

I understand that Ms. Stevens and the rest of the BOE have invested a fair amount of effort in this budget and that they're frustrated by the fact that the taxpayers said "not good enough", but that's the way the process works now.

May 18, 2011, 1:56pm Permalink
bud prevost

And let's be honest here. It got defeated, but the contingency budget is only $58,000 less. What difference does it make that it was defeated? Are any clubs, sports, etc. going to be discontinued? Is there still a tax increase under the austerity budget? Just curious if anyone could provide insight on how that works.

May 18, 2011, 2:07pm Permalink
Thomas Mooney

Gail is a member of Batavia Players , thus will not have free access to school buildings under a contingency budget . So I would almost be certain that there will be a new budget proposed . Pat Burk is also a member of Batavia Players , so there is some conflict of interest to get a budget passed before the plug is pulled on using the schools for free , not to mention A/C , uttilities , custodial staff ,ECT. This is all our tax dollars going for a specil interest .

May 18, 2011, 2:09pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

The local blogosphere ...

Well, I know there are a couple of readers with blogs, most notably Chris Charvella, but dollars to donuts, most of the talk about the budget has been on The Batavian.

So why not just say "The Batavian"?

And if The Batavian has had influence on a vote, well I hope its because we're helping people become better informed and more empowered. If that's the case, that was explicitly one of the goals when we launched the site. Kudos to all the readers and commenters for their contributions to push that along.

May 18, 2011, 6:26pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Here's from the Daily's story:

Board member Gail Stevens had a similar reaction as Puzio did. She was not surprised by the results.

“Not with a lot of the negative comments (on media websites). I just don’t think people understand that your hands are tied, contractually and even legally,” Stevens said. “It was below contingency, and I don’t think that people understand that concept either.”

Gee, what two words were excised out of that quote and replaced with "(on media websites)"?

So presuming Ms. Stevens reads these comments: Where are your comments, Ms. Stevens? You're just as welcome as anybody else to register for an account and have your say. If you think people are misinformed, inform them. The Batavian is an open forum.

May 18, 2011, 6:32pm Permalink
Keith Boardman

Bud - I'm not an expert in budget issues, but if the district decides not to put forth another budget for vote, there will definitely be an effect on the schools.

As I understand it, a contingency budget allows districts to spend money on items that are considered absolutely necessary to run a school. In the case of Batavia, I think it gets even more complicated by the fact that the proposed budget was actually LESS than the contingency budget.

The things that I've always heard ar usually most affected are the district's equipment budget (which would be negated for next year), use of schools by outside organizations (which would be eliminated), certain salary increases and very often extra-curricular activities (clubs, sports, etc.). I believe these are all considered statutorily non-contingency expenses, and are not subject to be negotiated

The community use portion is particularly big in a small town.

May 18, 2011, 9:04pm Permalink
Dave Meyer

Howard,

My use of the word "blogosphere" was meant to refer to The Batavian and you're right, I probably overthought it by using the euphemism.

I said, and I definitely meant, that The Batavian most certainly deserves a huge deal of credit for shedding more light on important community issues and providing its readers with the ability to discuss those issues.

Great work! Keep it up.

May 20, 2011, 6:17am Permalink
Bea McManis

Posted by Keith Boardman on May 18, 2011 - 9:04pm
As I understand it, a contingency budget allows districts to spend money on items that are considered absolutely necessary to run a school. In the case of Batavia, I think it gets even more complicated by the fact that the proposed budget was actually LESS than the contingency budget.

Those who wanted to see the budget fail, overlooked that little bit about the budget being LESS than the contingency. It didn't matter to them. The important thing was to vote it down.

The things that I've always heard ar usually most affected .....use of schools by outside organizations (which would be eliminated.....The community use portion is particularly big in a small town.

They only looked at one group using the school and not the rest that is "particularly big in a small town". There was ONE goal. Stop one group from using the school. The fact that others would be effected meant nothing.

Will their taxes go up? Most likely. Was that the real issue considering that the contingency budget is MORE than the budget, we'll have to wait and see. They certainly can't complain, they voted for this outcome.

May 20, 2011, 7:51am Permalink

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