Finding Ulysses

Two opportunities for citizens to have a say in the greater Trumansburg community are available to us this week. On Tuesday, it’s time to vote on the budget for next year’s operation of the Trumansburg schools. On Friday, from 7:00 to 9:30 in the evening, a forum on fracking, entitled Economic Impacts of Heavy Industrial [...]

The financial problems of our school district pale in comparison to the problems the state government has had with its own budget. Many times, school districts across New York have had to guess at their budgets because the state government couldn’t pass a budget on time.

Trumansburg Superintendent, Paula Hurley, describes the problem as follows: “We’re in our budget process currently, and we’re looking at approximately a 5 percent reduction in aid from New York State… That will translate for us into reductions of staff, the use of some of our reserves, as well as an increase in our tax levy.”

The privatizers are back. The Village Board met tonight to discuss the “crisis” with the EMS budget. Chris Thomas explained that because of decreasing volunteerism, the EMS budget would have to see an increase of 25% next year. The likely figure for next year will be $425,000. I’m guessing there are about 8000 people served [...]

609 people voted on the proposition to create a position for an high school student to be a non-voting member of the Trumansburg school board, with 457 voting in favor and 152 voting against.

The budget for the Trumansburg Central School District is lower than last year’s budget. There are also three propositions on the ballot today.