Lindbergh Revises 2010-11 Revenue Projection

Patrick Lanane, the chief finance officer for the Lindbergh School District,  reported Tuesday a loss of $99,814 to the district's operating budget after a mid-year budget adjustment. School district budgets are based on estimates at the beginning of the fiscal year in June, as they can not know the exact amount of revenue they'll receive during the school year. The budget is adjusted once real numbers are available.

"It's really a very small change from the original," Lanane said.

The largest declines in revenue will be $407,000 less in property taxes, $408,000 less in Early Childhood tuition and $240,000 less in state transportation aid.

He said the decline in actual revenue was offset by a decline in expenditures.

"Operating expenditures in the revised budget have decreased $573,448 most of which is in salary and benefits. Non-operating expenditures decreased $215,000 as a result of no arbitrage on the Prop R 2006 bond issue," he said.

At the Lindbergh school bvoard meeting Tuesday Lanane reported the district's general fund balance will be at a low of $13.4 million by June 2011. The fund balance is a type of savings account that school districts use to cover emergencies and prevent cash flow problems.

"It's going to push us very close to the borrowing point," he said. "We're that close," he said.

The school board asked Lanane to watch purchase orders and the district's cash flow to try to avoid the need to borrow money.

"If we can save that $100,000 back, maybe that's money we don't have to borrow," said board member Larry McIntosh.

"If it hasn't been purchased by this time in the year, maybe they don't need it," said Lanane of incoming purchase orders from the district's staff. He said he will question any further purchase orders made after winter break to make sure the expense is truly needed.

"We're really smacked because we rely on property taxes," said Lanane of the current budget crunch. He said that Lindbergh started feeling the recession before other school districts in Missouri who rely more on state funding. He said that other districts will face  millions of dollars of lost revenue from state aid.

"Ten percent of our state aid will be cut, but we get so little from the state that 10 percent isn't much. We only get a single digit percent of our money from the state," said Superintendent Dr. Jim Simpson.