Mount Vernon proposes $272.2 million budget, seeks 3.3% tax levy to address fiscal distress and close three schools

Mount Vernon City School District officials on Tuesday presented a proposed $272,206,615 budget for 2025–26 and asked voters to approve a 3.3% increase in the property tax levy, saying the measure is needed to stabilize district finances after years of deficits and steep cost increases.

"We were designated in fiscal distress," Assistant Superintendent for Business Jose Formoso told residents at the public hearing May 6, summarizing a multi-pronged plan of reorganization, contract budgeting and state aid requests aimed at restoring fiscal stability.

The budget presentation said the district has run annual operating deficits most years since 2019, drawing down fund balance from about $33 million in 2019 to a projected total of less than $1 million at the end of this year. Officials said projected 2024–25 expenditures will end near $278 million, compared with this proposed 2025–26 budget of $272,206,615 — an increase of $940,298 over the current adopted budget and a 3.3% property tax levy change.

Why it matters

Formoso and district slides cited several structural pressures: a sustained enrollment decline (from more than 8,000 students in 2014 to about 6,500 now and a consultant projection near 5,000 by 2033), a roughly 40% increase in transportation contract costs after a recent bid (which officials estimated added about $7 million this year), and rising health insurance premiums (a reported 10% increase this year equal to about $3.2 million and an anticipated 8.94% increase next year adding roughly $3 million). Officials said personnel costs make up about 62% of the budget.