Latest news with #Trustees
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
TDSB passes budget for 2025-2026 with plan to eliminate $34.4M deficit
Trustees for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have approved a budget for 2025-2026 that includes a plan to balance the board's books over the next two years. The plan includes a number of cost-saving measures to eliminate a $34.4 million deficit, including a pause on issuing new Chromebooks for students in the coming school year in favour of recirculating devices returned by graduating Grade 12 students, a news release from the board said. It also includes a $9.5 million spending cut in operating expenses for central departments of the board that will have "limited impact" on services. Fees will also rise for some continuing education programming, the TDSB said. At a meeting in April, trustees heard the school board was facing a $58-million deficit for 2025-2026, with staff looking at a variety of options to balance the budget. Since then, trustees have passed more than $20 million in cuts, resulting in a current deficit of $34.4 million, a spokesperson for the school board said. One of the cost-cutting options on the table was closing school pools the board doesn't lease out, which would have saved an estimated $12.8 million. However that's not happening after public outcry. Pools and aquatics instructors will continue to be available to students and community members for another year, the TDSB said in a Thursday news release. Board staff are working on privately leasing more pools while also working with the City of Toronto on the use of TDSB pools, the release says. The budget must now be submitted to the Ministry of Education by June 30 for final approval.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
TDSB passes budget for 2025-2026 with plan to eliminate $34.4M deficit
Trustees for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have approved a budget for 2025-2026 that includes a plan to balance the board's books over the next two years. The plan includes a number of cost-saving measures to eliminate a $34.4 million deficit, including a pause on issuing new Chromebooks for students in the coming school year in favour of recirculating devices returned by graduating Grade 12 students, a news release from the board said. It also includes a $9.5 million spending cut in operating expenses for central departments of the board that will have "limited impact" on services. Fees will also rise for some continuing education programming, the TDSB said. At a meeting in April, trustees heard the school board was facing a $58-million deficit for 2025-2026, with staff looking at a variety of options to balance the budget. Since then, trustees have passed more than $20 million in cuts, resulting in a current deficit of $34.4 million, a spokesperson for the school board said. One of the cost-cutting options on the table was closing school pools the board doesn't lease out, which would have saved an estimated $12.8 million. However that's not happening after public outcry. Pools and aquatics instructors will continue to be available to students and community members for another year, the TDSB said in a Thursday news release. Board staff are working on privately leasing more pools while also working with the City of Toronto on the use of TDSB pools, the release says. The budget must now be submitted to the Ministry of Education by June 30 for final approval.
CBC
16 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
TDSB passes budget for 2025-2026 with plan to eliminate $34.4M deficit
Trustees for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have approved a budget for 2025-2026 that includes a plan to balance the board's books over the next two years. The plan includes a number of cost-saving measures to eliminate a $34.4 million deficit, including a pause on issuing new Chromebooks for students in the coming school year in favour of recirculating devices returned by graduating Grade 12 students, a news release from the board said. It also includes a $9.5 million spending cut in operating expenses for central departments of the board that will have "limited impact" on services. Fees will also rise for some continuing education programming, the TDSB said. At a meeting in April, trustees heard the school board was facing a $58-million deficit for 2025-2026, with staff looking at a variety of options to balance the budget. Since then, trustees have passed more than $20 million in cuts, resulting in a current deficit of $34.4 million, a spokesperson for the school board said. One of the cost-cutting options on the table was closing school pools the board doesn't lease out, which would have saved an estimated $12.8 million. However that's not happening after public outcry. Pools and aquatics instructors will continue to be available to students and community members for another year, the TDSB said in a Thursday news release. Board staff are working on privately leasing more pools while also working with the City of Toronto on the use of TDSB pools, the release says. The budget must now be submitted to the Ministry of Education by June 30 for final approval.
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Social Security fund set to run out in 2034, one year earlier than estimated
Social Security is on track to run out by 2034, one year earlier than previously estimated, according to a new report. Social Security funds for retirees and survivors of deceased workers are set to run out in 2033, according to this year's annual report by the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. But funds for retirees and survivors could last until 2034 if Congress combines the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Fund with another fund for disability insurance. Payments won't stop once the funds run dry. Instead, monthly benefits will be cut by 19 percent, the trustees estimate. That means the average retired worker — who currently receives an average monthly payment of $2,002.39 — could see their payment drop down to $1,621.94. Last year, the trustees estimated the combined funds could last until 2035. The trustees attributed the change in their estimate to the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill passed under President Joe Biden with bipartisan support. The law, which went into effect in January, boosted benefits for more than three million retirees. More Americans are also filing for Social Security benefits this year. From January to May 2025, the program saw a 17 percent spike in enrollments compared to the same period last year, CBS News reports. As a result, an estimated four million new beneficiaries are expected to enroll by the end of 2025. The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is also set to run dry in 2033, three years earlier than the trustees previously projected. This fund helps cover stays in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices for Social Security recipients over 65 or those on disability insurance. After 2033, the fund will only be able to pay 89 percent of benefits. A federal official told Axios that hospital usage has soared in 2024 following a drop-off at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Was that foregone services from the Covid-related experience…or is there some broader change in terms of how health care is being dispensed?" the official said. "Obviously something we will continue to monitor." Advocacy groups for Social Security beneficiaries say Congress must act fast to protect beneficiaries. "Congress must act to protect and strengthen the Social Security that Americans have earned and paid into throughout their working lives," AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan told CBS News. "More than 69 million Americans rely on Social Security today and as America's population ages, the stability of this vital program only becomes more important,' Minter-Jordan added. Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, who was sworn into his position last month, says lawmakers are committed to strengthening the program. 'Congress, along with the Social Security Administration and others committed to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, must work together to protect and strengthen the trust funds for the millions of Americans who rely on it – now and in the future – for a secure retirement or in the event of a disability,' Bisignano said in a statement on Wednesday.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Key Policy Steps Could Ease Social Security's Finances
The Social Security trustees released their latest annual report, evaluating the finances of the country's premier social program. It faces manageable financial challenges that could become easier if policymakers took large, meaningful steps in the right direction. Social Security, or the Old Age Survivorship and Disability Insurance program, as it is officially called, will celebrate its 90th anniversary this year. It provides retirement and disability benefits to workers and their dependents and it pays survivorship benefits to widows, widowers, children, grandchildren and other dependents of deceased workers. It is a crucial lifeline for families when a key source of income – a worker's earnings disappear. The 2025 Trustees Report highlights how widespread Social Security's reach is. About 68 million people received Social Security benefits in 2024. This included 54 million retired workers and their dependents, 8 million disabled workers and their dependents and 6 million survivors of deceased workers. In a country of 332 million, according to the Census Bureau, these numbers show that about one-in-five people in the US received some form of Social Security benefit. The Trustees Report provides an estimate of the program's long-term future, too. Social Security will face financial challenges within the next decade as income from payroll taxes, trust fund assets and interest on the trust fund will no longer be enough to cover all promised benefits, starting in 2034. After that date, Congress will theoretically have to enact legislation to raise taxes, cut benefits or some combination of higher taxes and lower benefits to make sure that incomes match promised benefits. The Trustees Report estimates that Congress would have to raise payroll taxes immediately by 3.82 percentage points from 12.4% to 16.22% to cover the financial shortfall from 2025 through 2099. This is a manageable challenge, especially since the pressures on the program will eventually decline, as the Trustees Report shows. This is just another way of saying that managing Social Security's finances will eventually become easier, after everyone in the Baby Boom generation has passed away. The underlying assumption of the Trustees Report, though, is that the world is somewhat predictable and stable for the next 75 years. That is obviously a heroic assumption. Importantly, legislation and presidential policies can change, often dramatically, and thus affect Social Security's future. The Trustees Report provides a number of long-range sensitivity analyses that show how important policy decisions and their economic impact could be for Social Security's future. Let's start with demographics. Having more people come into the system, either through increased fertility or more immigration, will improve Social Security's long-term finances since it means more taxpayers for the program. For instance, the baseline scenario assumes an ultimate fertility rate of 1.9 children on average per woman over her lifetime. If that rate rose to 2.1 children, the long-term financial shortfall would fall from 3.82% of the total taxable earnings over the next 75 years to 3.4%. This is a meaningful improvement, but there are no clear policy pathways to raising the fertility rate, as The Hill reports. In comparison, raising the rate of immigration from a middling annual average 1,253,000 to 1,696,000 would result in the same financial benefit. It is also easier to accomplish for Congress and future presidential administrations through clearer pathways to legal residency and citizenship. But that is not where we currently are. In contrast, cutting annual average immigration, for instance, through mass deportations, to 833,000 would increase Social Security's long-term financial deficit from 3.82% of average taxable earnings over the next 75 years to 4.28%. Current anti-immigrant policies are likely to harm the program and increase pressures to cut benefits. Economic policy could also vastly improve Social Security's finances. Ensuring faster productivity and wage growth, for example, would significantly cut Social Security's deficit. The Trustees Report assumes an average inflation-adjusted annual wage growth of 1.13%. This is well below the rate of labor productivity, which recently has hovered around 2.0%, as my co-author and I wrote earlier this year. If policymakers at all levels of government helped to ensure that productivity growth stayed near or above 2.0% and if that translated into wage growth that would come close to that rate – 1.73% in the Trustees Report – Social Security's shortfall would drop from 3.82% of taxable earnings to 2.64%. This improvement would be three times larger than the improvement from achieving an as-of-yet elusive fertility rate increase. The Trustees Report's sensitivity analyses also show that broadening the tax base would help Social Security's finances. Not all earnings are subject to Social Security's payroll taxes. People pay those taxes up to an annual cap, which stands at $176,100 in 2025. Earnings beyond that level are not subject to payroll taxes. Because of rising wage inequality, more and more earnings have become concentrated above this tax limit and the tax base for Social Security has shrunk as a result, as my colleagues and I already discussed about a decade ago. Things have not changed since then. The share of total earnings that are subject to Social Security taxes is comparatively low. The Trustees Report assumes that it will stay at 82.5% on average for the next 75 years. Even marginally raising it to 84.0% would reduce the deficit from 3.82% of the taxable payroll to 3.65%, according to the 2025 Trustees Report. Completely eliminating the cap and thus subjecting all earnings to the payroll tax would obviously have a much larger impact. Social Security's chief actuary calculated, based on the assumptions of the 2024 Trustees Report, the impact of eliminating the earnings limit and subjecting all earnings to the 12.4% payroll tax without offsetting benefit increases for very high income earners. Such a policy change would shrink the deficit from an estimated 3.5% of taxable payroll to 0.95%. Massively broadening the tax base for Social Security would substantially improve the program's finances, but any step in that direction would have a measurable impact. Social Security will face some longer-term financial challenges. Congress will have to address those within the not-too-distant future. There are several longer-term policy steps that go beyond raising tax rates or cutting benefits. Some of those steps are relatively easier, though not easy by any means, to accomplish than others. Policymakers should consider those steps such as increasing immigration, ensuring higher wage growth and broadening the tax base, before cutting vital benefits for American families.
