The Dunkirk Board of Education and District Superintendent Michael Mansfield during Timbs’ presentation.

The Dunkirk City School District plans no tax increase this year, but a financial consultant warned Dunkirk Board of Education members last week about the negative financial implications for the district.

It was “Rick Timbs Day” for the board as the consultant made his annual mid-winter report on the district’s finances. Timbs always advocates 2% tax increases every year to keep the district’s long-range finances sound — but this year, in the wake of the city government’s 84% tax hike, DCSD officials do not want to add any more burden on the taxpayers.

Timbs said, “Part of my job is to try and protect you as much as I can, give the best advice I can come up with… I understand you’re going to try to go for the zero and try and help out this municipality. It’s certainly noteworthy, there’s no doubt. But I want you to know there’s a monetary cost to doing that.”

Even if the district hikes taxes by 2% in each year from 2026-2029, “somehow you’re going to have to pay for not collecting this money (this year). That’s basically how budgets work.”

Timbs later commented, “If I was in the city of Dunkirk I’d be so thankful you’re doing this for the taxpayers.” He emphasized again that it will cost the school district.

The Board of Education is scheduled to approve a 2025-26 budget and tax levy on April 8. It then goes to district voters in May.

Here’s some other points of interest from Timbs’ presentation:

— He warned district officials about stashing fund balance in an unemployment insurance reserve. “You had an excess fund balance and you’re trying to stay within the law in your unappropriated fund balance, so the money was placed in here. It’s not necessarily a bad idea… but the comptroller would not like this at all. Matter of fact, I think if the comptroller showed up, he’d write you up.”

Calling the unemployment reserve “considerably overfunded,” Timbs suggested a solution: Propose a 10-year, $10 million capital construction reserve, which would be a proposition on the May budget ballot.

“As we look at your capital plan, I think you’re going to need to use some of these reserves into the future,” Timbs said. “Some of this money’s going to come out here; where you take it out of will be up to you.”

— The consultant strongly criticized New York state’s push for school districts to use electric buses.

“Honest to God, I think every day, ‘I hope this electric bus thing doesn’t come true,'” he said. “Because what’s going to happen is, these contractors are going to have to start buying charging stations and buying these buses, and they’re going to have to start charging you for them.” That will rapidly escalate transportation costs, he said.

Timbs said everyone understands the desire for clean air, and to not have kids and drivers breathe diesel fumes. “But right now, (electric buses’) affordability is really questionable.”

He advocates pushing back the zero-emission bus mandate by five to seven years.

— Special needs costs “will go up a lot” in the next few years, Timbs said. He suggested the district might have to phase out other programs to make up the financial drain from that. It will have to “look top to bottom in the educational program,” he said.

Timbs encouraged district officials to not automatically hire exact replacements for retirees. “You’ve got to find some way to start cutting your costs. The costs are escalating,” he said. Timbs suggested a retirement incentive package for higher-paid employees, warning it won’t save much unless a “critical mass” of workers takes it.

— At one point, Timbs commented the district is well-managed enough that he does not think it will need Revenue Anticipation Notes at any time in the next five school years. “I had to point that out,” he said.

That could be taken as an indirect shot at the city of Dunkirk government, which needed three Revenue Anticipation Notes in 2023 and 2024.