Joint finance committees review preliminary FY26 school budget collections and Ed Fund outlook

A joint meeting of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 25 heard updated school budget collections and a revised Education Fund outlook that JFO staff said narrows the range of likely property tax rates for FY26.

Julia Richter of the Joint Fiscal Office and Sean Kuzo, interim chief financial officer at the Agency of Education, told members the state had received 106 of 122 expected detailed preliminary school budget submissions and was using December/January filings for 13 additional districts; three remaining entities were described as unorganized towns. Kuzo and Richter said those submissions were enough to cover most weighted pupils but that data errors remain under review.

Richter walked the committees through three columns in a landscape Ed Fund outlook posted to committee pages. Column D reflects updated district submissions and new Equalized Education Grand List (EEGL) data from the Tax Department; it produces a uniform average bill change of about 5.9%.…