OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford. Fredonia High School is pictured recently. The Fredonia Board of Education, which meets in the school’s library, approved a proposed budget for 2019-20 on Tuesday.

After starting Tuesday’s meeting with a tax hike, the Fredonia Central School District Board of Education wound up approving a 2019-20 budget proposal with no increase in the levy.

Business Administrator John Forbes presented a budget with a 1.5% increase in taxes, but board members made it clear they wanted no hike at all, citing the district’s comfortable fund balance.

Board member Tom Hawk said he did a review of recent budgets in preparation for working on the 2019-20 version, and said he found the district had an 88% increase in fund balance between 2014 and 2018. “I find that rather staggering,” he said.

Hawk continued, “I think we need to cut more. I think we at least need to be at 0%. We can afford it.”

He motioned for the change to the zero tax hike after Board President Michael Bobseine noted that it would take just $240,890 to wipe out the increase. While Bobseine and other board members thought it could all come from the fund balance, Forbes indicated he wants to also consider small cuts to appropriations.

“The state is recommending a 4% fund balance and they criticized us in an audit for going above that,” board member Brian Aldrich pointed out. He added that in his own research for the budget process, he found the district actually had a negative fund balance of $124,000 back in 1980 — which has ballooned to some $3.7 million in fund balance this fiscal year.

“Basically what the state has told us is, we’re fat. We’re obese,” Aldrich said. “We can get by with a 0% tax increase and still have very good finances in this district.” He added that fat-filled finances can put district officials into a mindset that discourages a search for less costly alternatives. “When we get too fat, we don’t look at those things,” he said. “When we’re a little leaner, we look at alternatives.”

The other board members agreed with Aldrich and Hawk and approved the budget with the zero tax hike. It now goes to a vote by residents of the Fredonia school district. That vote is set for May 21 from 2 to 9 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.

A well-known figure in the school district was the only person to speak at the legally required public hearing on the budget, held prior to the regular meeting Wednesday. The 1.5% tax hike was still on the table at that point.

“Are my taxes going to go down this year?” asked Andy Ludwig, former Fredonia Middle School principal and Board of Education candidate, and current Northern Chautauqua Catholic School principal.

Forbes replied, “I can’t answer that question straight up because the budget is down $2 million on the expenditure side, but you’re also down $2 million on the revenue side due to decreased building aid, so when you factor all that in the current proposal does not have a zero tax increase.”

“I appreciate you answering that question. I’m not used to getting my questions answered,” said Ludwig.

He had more to say after the regular meeting began, during time set aside for comments from the public. Ludwig criticized the board for the district’s high fund balance, which he said the state auditors found was 11% — almost three times the 4% suggested by the Comptroller’s Office.

“I guess I’m wondering who’s accountable for that?” he asked. “You all knew about it, and if you didn’t know about it, you should have known about it. It appears like we were overtaxed as taxpayers, we were overcharged for a number of years until the state kind of caught up with the board.”

No one replied to Ludwig (the board has a provision for offering written replies to public comments) and Bobseine closed the public comments period.