The Board of Education tonight met to discuss a revised budget proposal submitted by Superintendent John Sonedecker. Both Administrator and Board will continue to work on what he presented. A finished version is expected for final public comment, Board review and approval by May 30th.

On June 6th, public notice of the second budget vote will be mailed to your homes. A final presentation of the new budget will be made on June 13th.

The voting is tentatively scheduled for JUNE 20TH, 2000. MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW.

The four page document furnished to those attending the meeting TRIED, but failed, to clearly explain all it contained. It is seriously deficient.

Looking at page four's array of numbers, one is left with wondering about little things like "What happened to the extra $3.2 million the State sent us? Why is it now only $1.9 million?" Or, "How did nearly $39 million dollars in revenues become only $37 million?"

The next conflict their going to have is getting everyone to understand why the REAL budget increase in the original proposal was only 11.4% and not 12.5%!!!!

It seems, they've decided that including the Summer Recreation and Saturday Enrichment Program's near million dollars in both the revenues and expenditure columns of the defeated budget proposal created a "misunderstanding." Sooo, in the coming weeks a notation to that affect will be seen in old versus new presentations.

Whatever is to become of this effort, they had better get some better writers. A reader can't but help believe they are deliberately trying to confuse the public... again.

Here's the proposal as it stands now:

Proposals	Original	Revised	Original v Revised	Original v Revised	Increases over Last Year
Budget Total	$98,429,851	$96,705,681	$2,694,905	- 2.71%	$8,367,692
Budget Increase over Last Year	11.4% *	9.47%	$8,367,692	- 2.71%	9.47%
Budget Increase over Last Year	$10,091,862*	$8,367,692	$2,694,905	- 2.71%	$8,367,692
Tax Increase Over Last Year	7.25%	5.58%	$945,243	- 23%	$3,155,472
Brookhaven	6.32%	4.60%	- $1.79**	- 27%	$4.81**
Smithtown	8.03%	6.29%	- $1.26**	- 21%	$4.54**

  * Due to the correction discussed in paragraph six above.
 ** Taxes per $100 dollars of assessed valuation.

We'll have more to say about all of this in our next update. But, what are your thoughts? Send them to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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