Williamsville, N.Y. (WBEN) - In a newly released audit, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Williamsville Central School District officials did not properly manage the District’s fund balance and reserves, resulting in a higher than necessary tax burden on residents.
Among the "key findings", the audit said the District's budgets between 2018 and 2022 gave the impression the District would have been operating deficits of $38 million, when it actually had operating surpluses totaling $40 million, a $78 million discrepancy.
Additionally, the audit finds the District consistently overestimated general fund appropriations from 2018-19 through 2021-22 by a total of $47 million, and appropriated $22 million of fund balance that was not needed or used.
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"When I became aware of this report and I read through it, I was really bothered by some of the findings," said Rev. Terry King, a concerned parent of a Williamsville student during Tuesday's School Board meeting. "I hope tonight you would really take to heart the role of the board as the fiscal authority to pass and to appropriate a balanced budget that's accurate, that represents the true condition of the school. But apparently, in the findings report, that didn't happen here for the last three years. This board prior, boards have voted on budgets that were constructed falsely, with misappropriation or misallocation of funds to generate a picture to the community that there were deficits. Deficits that didn't exist."
While the Comptroller's audit said estimated revenues within Williamsville's budget were reasonable, it says appropriations were overestimated by an average of $11.7 million each year.
The Comptroller said District officials disagreed with the audit's findings.
"We violated the state statute, and I would ask the board if you would consider bringing in an outside review, perhaps the State Attorney General [Letitia James] to bring back fiscal integrity to the taxpayers, to the district, so that we can all have faith that the new budget will be constructed correctly, honestly, forthrightly," Rev. King said. "Then the question we have to ask is, 'Are you returning, to the taxpayers, the overfunded taxes that were levied inappropriately for the last three years?'"
The District is required to create a corrective action plan that addresses the findings in this audit. The corrective action is required to be approved by the Board of Education. The approved correction action must then be submitted to the New York State Comptroller's Office and to the New York State Education department.