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| 5/21/2009 12:38:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Budget re-vote OK'd by the GASD board
Jessica Maher
Reporter
To give 31 voters a chance to change their minds, the Greater Amsterdam School District board of education passed a resolution Wednesday that will send the proposed 2009-10 budget out for re-vote June 19.
The proposed $55,353,987 budget was voted down on Tuesday by initially 32 votes, though Superintendent Thomas Perillo said another vote in favor of passing the budget was discovered.
"I thought it was a real tribute to the community that it was that close ... it tells me as superintendent that the people who voted yes on the budget want to save jobs," said Perillo.
Board members engaged in discussion on whether to resubmit the budget to voters or adopt a contingency budget.
"The people came, they voted in a fair election and this is the decision they came up with," said board member Kevin Bechtel, who had the sole no vote in putting the budget up for re-vote.
Other board members thought that because the vote was so close, taxpayers deserved another chance to go to the polls.
Before the budget will be voted on again, some board members said the public needs to be better informed about the budget, the consequences of their vote and the disadvantages of the budget going to contingency.
"You didn't vote on the salaries ... your vote yesterday was irrelevant to that situation," said board member Carol Greco.
The re-vote will cost the district $8,000 to $8,500 for the registration, public hearing and voting processes. There is a provision in the current budget to cover the cost of a re-vote, said Business Manager Roger Seward.
Taxpayers will only vote on the budget - propositions to support the Walter Elwood Museum with an annual tax levy and to purchase two Suburban vehicles, which were both defeated, will not appear on the ballot.
If the budget is defeated for a second time, $200,000 will need to be removed from the budget to reach contingency. In an initial draft of the budget, those reductions consisted of staff cuts including four custodians. Board member James Walrath said that "nothing is etched in stone" about where the cuts would be made.
"It could be janitors, it could be hall monitors ... it could be modified sports, it could be all activities, it could be a lot of different things," said Walrath.
Still, Robert Minkler, Amsterdam High School head custodian and president of the Custodial, Maintenance and Bus Driver's Unit, saw the re-vote as an opportunity to continue to inform taxpayers about the importance of the custodial staff and voting yes on the budget.
"We're back with a vengeance," he said.
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Contact Jessica Maher at jessica.maher@recordernews.com.
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