On July 20, 2022 Cities 92.9 received a response regarding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request we sent to the Unit 5 (Normal) School District. Unit 5 responded by sending a five year forecast and other documents prepared for meetings.
We took a look at the five year forecast they sent us with an eye towards what changed from Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-22 to FY 2022-23. That document provided the insight we have been looking for.
When looking at what the budget problem stems from it’s really quite simple. It’s the cost of salaries and benefits for staff. That cost for FY 2022 is $104.1 million of the total $120.2 million budget. That’s 87% of the budget. Realistically there isn’t enough real savings to be had in any other areas to make much of a difference in the budget deficit.
We have no evidence regarding how much consideration Unit 5 has given to cutting staff. It’s really that simple. That may be why the only thing they’ve put fourth publicly regarding a solution is raising your taxes because how much they need to cut is alarming.
Unit 5 Leaning Towards Asking for $14.5 Million Tax Increase
Regarding what changed between FY 2022 and FY 2023 the answer to that is simple too. Remember those bonds the district has sold over the past years to pay for their structural (operations) budgets? Well they finally decided it was time to stop that terrible budgeting practice. And now the piper has to be paid.
The FY 2022 budget would be $11.3 million in the red if not for $12.5 million of funding from bonds. So excluding the bond money in the FY 2022 budget a more realistic comparison of what has changed from FY 2022 to FY2023 would be to say in that paradigm the FY 2022 budget shows a deficit of $11.3 million growing to a deficit of $13.2 million in FY 2023.
The $1.9 million increase from 2022 to 2023 is 17% which is high. But when we look at having to plug a $13.2 million gap in one year the $1.9 million increase is not necessarily that material.
So hypothetically let’s say we wanted to solve this budget problem by making cuts. And for the sake of this analysis let’s keep it really simple, even if unrealistic, and assume we will solve it by cutting staff. We will use FY 2023 numbers since that is the current problem at hand.
Our task is to cut $13.2 million plus $700,000 of bond debt due in FY 23 . That’s a total of $13.9 million.
The projected cost for staff in 2023 is $108.7 million. To solve the problem we would have to cut staff by 13%. That’s approximately 1 in 8 employees. According to the Bloomington Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Unit 5 employs 1,874 people. A 13% cut would eliminate 244 jobs.
What about across the board cuts you say? Even with across the board cuts an 11% reduction in staff would be necessary. That is still 1 in 9 employees and equates to 206 positions.
Does anyone really think either of these two scenarios is remotely possible? See the situation Unit 5 is in?
Unit 5 believes 55% of the community will support a tax referendum that will raise $12 million in taxes a year. They believe that with good marketing the community can be persuaded to pass a referendum to raise $14.5 million. Problem solved. Right?
Wrong. Unit 5 projects a budget deficit of $16.1 million for 2024.
