Croton-Harmon School Officials Adopt $44.5 Million Budget Proposal

Croton-Harmon School officials adopted a $44,592,809 budget during its April 11 school board meeting. 

The proposal represents a 2.78 percent increase from this year's budget and a tax levy increase of 2.33 percent, which is within the state's mandated tax levy cap.

District residents in the town of Cortlandt would see their tax rates increase by 2.59 percent while residents in Yorktown would see their tax rates decrease by one percent.

Edward Fuhrman, the superintendent of Croton-Harmon schools, said the district's mission during the budget process was to maintain educational solvency, maintain adequate reserve funds and to find ways to improve educational programs while lowering costs.

"Some of you may have read about school districts that are in debt right now," Fuhrman said during last week's meeting.  "There is one district in my county, were I live that, is running a deficit and has been for the last couple of years. That's not sustainable.That's not something that any district wants to get into."

A public hearing on the budget will be held 7:30 p.m. on May 9, inside the Croton-Harmon High School Library. The public vote on the budget is scheduled for May 21.