Colonial SD staff outline 2025‑26 budget strategy and summarize highlights from Governor Shapiro's proposal
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Summary
District staff reported maintaining a proposed 3.18% tax increase using $1 million of fund balance and reviewed the governor's budget proposal and its limited direct benefit to the district, including a small projected increase in basic education funding and minimal special education relief.
Colonial School District staff briefed the finance committee on March 3 about the district's 2025‑26 budget development and the implications of Governor Josh Shapiro's proposed state budget for schools.
Staff said the district is maintaining a proposed 3.18% tax increase that anticipates using $1 million of fund balance, yielding an effective millage of 26.495 mills under current estimates. The presentation summarized the governor's proposal, which staff reported as a roughly $133 billion total operating budget for Pennsylvania with about $51 billion to the General Fund; staff emphasized that most of the governor's new education dollars are targeted at adequacy and tax equity supplements for lower‑resourced districts.
Staff presented district‑level impacts staff calculated from the proposal: Colonial School District's estimated increase in basic education formula aid would be about $73,000 and its share of increased special education funding about $27,089. Staff said the governor's draft budget includes a $75 million increase to the basic education funding formula and a relatively small statewide increase in special education funding; staff stressed that district expenditures for special education substantially exceed state and federal subsidies.
Committee discussion noted items included and excluded from the governor's proposal: staff said PlanCon funding, minimum teacher salary increases, cyber charter reimbursement increases and some other reform items were not included in the governor's initial plan. The district also flagged proposed state revenue sources cited by the governor's office, including expanded gaming and potential adult‑use cannabis taxation, but staff reiterated that the district will not rely on proposed, not‑final state appropriations in its budget plan.
Staff noted that refinancing savings discussed elsewhere in the meeting had already been accounted for in the district's budget projections and cited that the refinancing estimate contributed to reducing the projected tax increase from 3.48% to 3.18%. Staff said they will present a final proposed budget in April (to meet the minimum 30‑day public display requirement) and anticipate ratification at the June meeting, subject to change if new information emerges.