GREENE – On May 19, taxpayers in the Greene Central School District will cast their vote yea or nay on the proposed budget for the 2009-10 academic year. The $22,083,389 budget represents an increase in spending of $38,265, or .17 percent, over the current year.

The impact on district residents will be an estimated tax levy increase of .51 percent, the first increase in two years.

“The board challenged us to make sure the budget to budget increase (from the current year to next year) was as minimal as possible,” explained Superintendent Gary Smith.

According to the administrator, the board had originally tasked the district with developing a budget with at most a 4 percent increase in the tax levy. They later revised that directive.

“I think the board recognizes the danger in substantially increasing our budget in the fiscal environment that we find ourselves in right now,” Smith said.

There was a modicum of good news during the budget process when the district learned that they the amount they would gain in federal stimulus money would roughly offset the $551,000 they were slated to lose in Governor Paterson’s deficit reduction plan.

“Certainly the Federal Stimulus package helped us,” Smith said. The district was also able to tap into its un-appropriated fund balance for $25,200, which further bolstered the revenue side of the budget. But even that wasn’t enough to keep the total budget flat.