District 54 budget remains balanced in difficult times

At first glance, Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54's new tentative budget looks like a compromise of the district's long-standing policy of balanced budgets, but it's actually not.

Apart from the effect of a fund transfer, costs are again lower than revenues in the tentative budget and the district remains on course to eliminate all its debt over the next two fiscal years on an accelerated debt payment plan that was implemented some time back, officials said.

While many Illinois districts are slipping further into debt as a result of the state funding crisis and lower than expected property tax receipts, District 54's ongoing use of five-year projections helped it to avoid unduly severe impacts, board President Karen Strykowski said.

"It's thoughtful, careful planning ahead," she said. "We planned in case we ever had to face times like these."

The tentative 2010-2011 budget shows revenues of $229.6 million and expenditures of $238.1 million.

But the $8.5 million higher expenditure figure is due to a transfer from the working cash fund to the construction fund, Controller and Director of Facilities Ric King said.

Without the transfer, expenditures are $220.2 million, $9.4 million less than revenues, and so the board considers the budget to be balanced.

The fund transfer is anything but an effort to defer debt, Strykowski said. The transferred money is being used to pay for facility maintenance and the district will be debt free during fiscal year 2012, she added.

The benefits of eliminating all debt so soon from now justify the additional spending during the year ahead, Strykowski said.

"It certainly can lower the tax rate and it's good for the taxpayer," she said, alluding to the hope that the district can lower its tax rate when it no longer has to pay for debt service. "We never want to have to go to referendum."

King said that eliminating all debt today gives the district much greater financial flexibility for the future.

While revenues in the tentative budget are just about the same as they were for the prior year, the expenditures without the fund transfer represent about a 3.5 percent increase, King said.

Beginning this Thursday, the tentative budget will be available for review at the district office at 524 E. Schaumburg Road in Schaumburg and remain there through the public hearing for its approval at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 in the board room.