Baldwin-Whitehall warns of multimillion-dollar shortfall as tax collections lag and federal aid is uncertain

The Baldwin-Whitehall School District’s finance staff told the school board on Tuesday that the district faces a potential multimillion-dollar shortfall for the 2025–26 fiscal year after current-year tax collections fell below expectations and federal grant funding remained uncertain.

During a budget presentation, the district business manager said, “we're probably gonna have about a $4,000,000 deficit,” and outlined how lower-than-expected current tax collections — particularly in Baldwin and Whitehall boroughs — have reduced revenue this year and could strain next year’s budget.

The discussion matters because the district depends on local property and earned-income taxes for more than half its revenue. With federal Title and IDEA dollars at risk and state increases only modest in department proposals, administrators said balancing the budget without additional local revenue or program cuts would be difficult.

Business manager (identified in the meeting as the presenter of the revenue slides) told the board the district’s projected revenue mix for 2025–26 is roughly 58% local, 39% state and about 3% federal. He said the district typically budgets delinquent real-estate tax receipts at about $1 million; this year delinquent collections rose to roughly $2.7 million because of a few large collections, and he increased next year’s delinquent-tax budget to about $1.8 million to be conservative.

The presentation…