Area schools join MCSBA in legal battle over FAIR Plan

   Avon and Caledonia-Mumford Central Schools joined 21 schools in Monroe County in a law suit filed in State Supreme Court against the Monroe County Legislature and Executive Maggie Brooks. The suit argues the legality of the county’s recently passed F.A.I.R. Plan that results in a 50 percent reduction in sales tax funding distributed to Monroe County school districts.  Six other school districts situated on the border of Monroe County, including Avon and Cal-Mum, receive sales tax funds for a small population of their students who live in Monroe County.

    Monroe County’s F.A.I.R. Plan will take back 50 percent of the sales tax revenue distributed to schools to pay for the county’s Medicaid debt. The F.A.I.R. Plan is set to take effect in January 2008, leaving schools short of funds already budgeted and approved by voters in their districts. Monroe County says increases in State Aid
to schools will offset the reduction in sales tax funds. Both Avon and Cal-Mum School Boards voted in October to join the legal battle.

   ACS Superintendent Bruce Amey said his district receives only $15,000 a year in sales tax revenue from Monroe County for students living in the Town of Rush.  Still, Amey points out, lost revenue in any amount, can mean a reduction somewhere when tough budget decisions are being made.

   "It’s not huge (for Avon CSD), but for other school districts, it is huge. For Maggie Brooks to suggest that no one is harmed (by her F.A.I.R. Plan), is truly a misrepresentation of the truth," Amey said.

   The superintendent said he agrees that Medicaid spending and how to fund it is a problem in Monroe County. However, he disagrees with the way Brooks plans to solve the problem.

   "It’s the wrong thing to do, to take away from school districts. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul," Amey remarked.

   Avon CS has spent about $1,200 in legal fees so far. Amey said the board of education does not intend to spend a large amount of money on this lawsuit, though a definite cap on spending has not been set.

   Cal-Mum Superintendent David Dinolfo said the district annually receives about $200,000 in sales tax revenue from Monroe County for the students residing in the three towns of Riga, Wheatland and Chili. He said CM taxpayers in those three towns will be impacted by the F.A.I.R. Plan.
"The Monroe County legislators’ decision will have an impact to Cal-Mum School residents living in those three towns.  We estimate the decision will increase the tax rates to those towns by $1.05 per thousand dollars of assessed property value," Dinolfo explained.

   With the F.A.I.R. Plan taking effect on January 1, 2008, both Cal-Mum and Avon schools will be facing a shortfall in revenue in the current school year. Dinolfo, who in 1999-2000 headed a consortium of Livingston County schools in a lawsuit against the Livingston County Board of Supervisors in response to their plan to phase out sales tax revenue to schools, said there are differences between the two mactions. The main difference, he said, is that Livingston County proposed a three-year phase out of the sales tax revenue to schools, with no impact on the current year and he said, they also acknowledged the impact to schools. The lawsuit ended with a settlement that provided county funding for school resource officers, school social workers and support for the Business Education Alliance.

   As a result, Dinolfo says, relations between the county board of supervisors and school districts are strong and collaborative.  

   "This revenue reduction is going to be felt by the residents in those towns. In 1999-2000 we defended Livingston County taxpayers in the Caledonia-Mumford school district. This time, we’re defending Monroe County taxpayers"  Dinolfo explained.

   The case is scheduled to be heard in state Supreme Court in Rochester in November.