Underride Removes Ability to Handle Unexpected Costs

One of the big benefits of having some wiggle room left between our budget and our levy limit under Proposition 2 1/2 is being able to handle unexpected but unavoidable new costs from year to year.

Special education costs are a good example of what we would lose with the under-ride. In the last 2 years, school budget increases have been driven by the demands of special needs education. Between the 2007 and 2008 budget, there was a 73% increase in this single cost, equaling $1.1 million. This represents two-thirds of the total increase in the overall school budget from last year to this year (and over 2% of Amesbury's entire budget!).

We have no control over special educations costs, between government mandates and who is attending our schools year to year. If we experienced an increase like this next year, we would already be behind the 8 ball, before we even look at anything else in the budget!