WLCS fund balance to cover shortfall in new budget

The Walled Lake Consolidated Schools Board of Education adopted its budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year at a board meeting on Thursday, June 7.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Teri Les, the district expects to see total revenues of $150.24 million. Meanwhile, total expenditures in the budget total $156.54 million.

The difference will be covered by the district’s fund balance.

“We have more than enough fund balance to absorb that,” Les said. “We have been diligent over the past years to build up that fund balance, so the difference can be absorbed.”

This will help cover the approximately $4 million less in funding the district expects to see as compared to 2011-12.

Those numbers are better than those predicted for the upcoming fiscal year.

“It’s difficult to make up funding when it decreases, even without that many increases,” Les said.

While the district didn’t add many increases this year, according to Les, there were a few, including maintaining the added staff from last year to accommodate overages in classrooms and seeing an increase in retiree cost of another 2 percent to 13 percent.

“We’re hoping that there will be legislation to reform that (retirement) program soon so that the rate will remain the same from year to year,” Les said.

Meanwhile, the district has decreased some of its costs by closing Twin Beach and Maple elementary schools this past year.

The top source of revenue for the district is state aid funding at $102.97 million. An additional $34.12 million is generated from local property tax revenue and facilities rentals.

The top expenditure for the district remains salaries and benefits.

“Being a service organization, staffing costs make up the majority of our expenses,” Les said. “Eighty-six percent of the budget is salaries and benefits. Other large expenditures are operations, maintenance, and transportation.”

At the same meeting, the board also adopted a final amendment to the 2011-2012 budget, which ended with a surplus in revenue to be added to the general fund balance for future years.

For this past school year, the district had $152.53 million in expenditures while netting revenues totaling $153.62 million.