PANAMA — Panama Central School taxpayers won’t see an increase in their school taxes in the coming year.

School board members approved a $12.9 million budget last week that increases spending by about $29,000, or .23% from the 2020-21 budget. The proposed budget uses $694,000 from the district’s fund balance, a decrease of $100,000 from the 2020-21 budget, while the tax levy of $3,464,980 is unchanged. A public hearing on the budget will be held May 10 before the regular school board meeting. District officials are finalizing how the hearing will be held while meeting state social distancing guidelines.

“I think from where people thought we might be six months ago to where we are as a district today is a significant source of excitement for the district,” said Bert Lictus, district superintendent. “As you know we are fiscally sound in our planning and to be able to get through this year without negatively adjusting our programming and to allocate or be conservative allocating less money than we have for the past couple of years, and that does not count the federal money that could be flowing, I think the citizens of Panama should have a smile on their face and be confident that the school is going to be strong next year and for the years coming.”

The district received about 3% in additional state Foundation Aid in the state’s finalized budget for 2021-22. The state budget also phases in a fully funded Foundation Aid formula for the state’s school districts over the next three years.

“There has been talk about Foundation Aid being fully funded in three years, and we’ve also been told don’t hold your breath,” Lictus said. “There is talk about making schools whole. I’m not uncomfortable with that, but some of us here remember GEA where we lost $3 million for years. So if there is some assistance coming to strengthen our schools for the future, fantastic.”

The financial news wasn’t all positive, however. The state budget did not include forgiveness of the Panama Central School District’s fine by the state Education Department. The district was assessed a $4.9 million penalty by the state Education Department (NYSED) that resulted from a late final cost report on a 2005 capital project.

In 2012, the district, upon reviewing the state’s website, found that it still had an “open” project on file. This information was not made available to Panama when it was closing out its 2005 building project. The state Legislature has approved legislation to forgive the fine several times only to see the legislation vetoed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, tried to guide a fine forgiveness bill through the state budget process but were unable to do so. Four other school district fines were forgiven as part of the state budget.

“At that we shake our heads,” Lictus said. “It’s a little bit disappointing that with everything going on in New York state right now, as many school districts as he has forgiven during this entire process, and wow, that’s all I can say is wow. I really thought this year would do it.”

The fine was originally to have been paid off next year, but Lictus said changes in state aid the last couple of years may add another year to the state aid withholding that is used to pay the district’s debt to the state.

On the plus side, the district has been awarded roughly $390,000 from a lawsuit over the school track project from 2009. The district had originally been awarded $193,000 in damages from the lawsuit, with the judge in the case later awarding $190,000 worth of interest for the period from September 2009 through September 2020, when the case rested. There is a May 22 appeal date, but the defense in the case called no witnesses and presented no defense.

“The judge came down pretty clearly on our side of the matter,” Lictus said. “So that’s exciting news. We’ll have to have the conversation when all this is over about what this means.”