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Easton Area SD finance chief lays out first budget look: $220M in expenses, about $7.4M gap
Summary
Finance officer Jack Trent presented a preliminary budget showing roughly $220 million in expenditures for 2025–26 versus projected revenues of about $212.5 million (including a TIF allocation), leaving an estimated gap. Board members raised alarm about shrinking fund balances and multi‑year fiscal pressure.
Jack (Jack) Trent, the district’s finance officer, delivered the board’s first look at the 2025–26 budget, telling the board his top priorities were accurate account lines, reduced costs where feasible and maintaining the district fund balance ahead of a planned capital program.
Trent presented preliminary revenue and expense estimates: total projected revenues from local, state and federal sources plus additional items such as tax‑increment financing (TIF) were presented at about $212.5 million. Projected expenditures as the district currently operates were shown at roughly $220 million, producing an initial budget gap district staff estimated at about $7.4 million. Trent underscored that the federal ESSER pandemic funds are no longer available and that federal grant lines have been conservatively budgeted at 80 percent of anticipated amounts.
Key items from the presentation and board discussion: - Revenues: local (largely property taxes), state aid (projected at about $60 million), and reduced federal revenue without ESSER. The presentation noted TIF receipts expected to be available this year of more than $7 million. - Expenditures: staff compensation and benefits together account for roughly 64 percent of expenditures. Total expenditures shown were just under $220 million. - Gap and options: administration outlined options to close the gap, including reviewing contracts, offering health‑insurance buyouts, asset sales, and a potential property tax rate increase (Trent described a possible operating levy of 2 percent plus a separate 1.5 percent addition to cover capital financing for a proposed new high school). The board will ultimately set the tax‑levy recommendation.
During discussion, one board member reviewed audited fund‑balance history and urged urgency: the board member cited an audited reserve of about $43 million at the close of fiscal 2021 and calculated that district use of reserves in subsequent years had reduced that balance substantially (the speaker cited several years’ draws totaling in the many millions). Superintendent Piazza and Trent said the 2023–24 audit was still in progress and that final figures would be reported when available.
Trent said he will continue one‑on‑one meetings with directors and principals to validate account lines, and that the administration will return with more detailed proposals, with a timeline expected to include budget updates in April and a proposed/adopted budget timeline through May.
