The Levittown Board of Education unanimously adopted a budget, to be presented to taxpayers on May 18, of $99,653,314, which will bring the tax rate up to $66.53 per 100 of assessed valuation.

This budget proposal, presented by the board, represents a tax rate increase of $6.15 per 100 of assessed valuation.

According to Superintendent Herman Sirois a little more than half of the increase is for the continuation of existing programs, due to cost of living increases. Another increase in the budget, according to Sirois, is due to enlarged enrollments. There are currently about 400 more students enrolled in the district than there were two years ago when they last adjusted the budget for enrollment increases.

There is also an $800,000 or about a 1 percent increase included in the budget associated with the new Regents standards. There is also money in the budget to lower class sizes in grades K-6. The maximum class size in grades 4 and 5 will be reduced from 29 to 28 and in grades 1-3 the class size will be reduced from 28-27. In kindergarten the highest class size next year will be 22, which is down from 25 this past year. Also included in the budget is additional money for enhanced remedial services including expanded summer opportunities for regular and special education students. These programs and increased services will all help to better prepare students for the new standards and expectations.

Another significant increase in this year's budget comes from building improvements including a new athletic track at Division Avenue High School, a new science lab, some window replacements, and funds for long-term building maintenance and repair.

The budget increase also contains the settlements of contractual negotiations for the LUT, CSEA, and ALSA. According to Sirois a retirement incentive has not been included in this year's budget because an incentive offer was made to the LUT but has not yet been accepted.

This budget proposal, besides being unanimously supported by the board of education, was endorsed by the executive committee of the PTA Council. No residents chose to speak at the second budget hearing, held on Tuesday, May 11. At that same meeting the board of education approved a senior citizen tax exemption which raises the maximum income for which a 50 percent exemption may be granted from $18,500 to $19,500 with sliding scale benefits still available to taxpayers.

Sirois stated, "It's a solid budget. It's a higher tax rate than usual mainly because the board has, for six years, had tax increases under $2, budget increases of less than 2 percent for six years when the costs have averaged about 5 percent so the board has been quite responsible to the taxpayers in terms of keeping, as long as they could, the tax rate low and that adjustment just has to take place this year."

In addressing the tax rate increase, Sirois brought up the STAR program and the amount of money that program would bring back to taxpayers. He noted, "The STAR program will offset that increase totally for the average homeowner. The increase, which would have been about $320 is more than offset by the STAR savings that they get...so there will be an actual reduction of $39 in the taxes paid by the average homeowner, taxes they pay this year as compared to taxes they are going to pay next year."

Even if this budget were defeated at the May 18 election, the proposed 1999-2000 Levittown school budget is within less than one half of 1 percent of the cap, or expenditure limits that would be imposed by New York State. A defeated budget, according to information provided by the district, would carry an expenditure increase of only $600,000 less than the proposed budget, a difference of about $0.68 per 100 assessed valuation on the overall tax rate or about $35 per year for the average Levittown homeowner.

Sirois concluded, "It was unanimously approved by the board, they feel strongly that this budget is exactly what our district needs right now and we're confident that the voters will support it. It's good news that the PTA is endorsing it. We're happy. It's what our kids need."