PRESS RELEASES

Monday, April 14, 2008
Record Increase in State Aid for New Rochelle Schools

Assemblymembers Amy Paulin and George Latimer announced this week that the New Rochelle School District will receive a record increase in state aid for the 2008-09 school year. The state budget was passed on April 9th with New Rochelle schools receiving a total of $35.66 million in state aid which is approximately 9.29% over last year.

“With a grim economic forecast and a sudden change in leadership, this year’s budget process was particularly challenging. I am very pleased however, that the end result was positive for New Rochelle - a community that places a very high value on education. I fought for this increase in aid to help maintain quality schools and to offset rising property taxes,” stated Paulin.

In addition to the increase in education funding for all Westchester County school districts several other financial benefits are included in this budget:

WICKS reform – offers school districts (and municipalities) the option of using a Project Labor Agreement to avoid WICKS law requirements - estimated cost savings of between 10% - 30% per building project - and eliminates WICKS entirely for projects under $1.5 million.
Maintains the preferable “select aid ratio” of 30% for New Rochelle in reimbursable building aid for capital projects beginning after July 1, 2008.

“Decreasing state aid to local school districts causes increases in local property taxes, the very tax that people most complain about. The formulas and the funding is a complicated, give and take process, but we lobbied hard for our school districts and it paid off,” stated Latimer.

In preparation of the budget process, Paulin and Latimer met with school district business officials to conduct a thorough analysis of the proposed budget to ensure that the final budget included those specific items that drive the most money to Westchester County school districts. “I have found this process to be very successful in getting increased aid for our districts. I am grateful to the professionals who have always been ready and willing to offer their expertise at this critical time. Working together produced excellent results,” stated Paulin.