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Hendrick Hudson board hears preliminary 2025–26 budget scenarios as district faces dropping cessation funds
Summary
District staff presented preliminary 2025–26 budget scenarios showing large pressure from employee benefits and debt and projected loss of roughly $2.2 million a year in cessation funding; one scenario would use about $7.4 million of fund balance to hold the tax levy near 4.2%, another assumes roughly $5.9 million in reserves and a higher levy.
The Hendrick Hudson Central School District on Wednesday presented early budget scenarios that show rising personnel costs and an approaching decline in a one-time revenue stream, forcing board members to weigh using significant reserves now or accepting higher tax levies later.
Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business Jill Figueroa led the budget presentation, saying the district faces higher payroll and benefit expenses next year and a steady drop in cessation (mitigation) payments tied to a retired electric-generation facility. "They are going to be decreasing for this school district $2,200,000 annually until they're completely depleted," Figueroa said in the presentation, adding that the district must decide how to continue funding programs and staff as that revenue disappears.
Figueroa outlined two illustrative scenarios. One would keep the tax levy close to the current projection (around 4.2%) by drawing about $7.4 million from fund balance; she cautioned that "that's injecting $7,400,000 [of] fund balance" and that the projection rests on still-unknown state aid, pilot amounts and tax-cap exclusions. The second scenario injects about $5.9 million of reserves and produces a noticeably higher levy (she discussed a roughly 7.1% levy in the scenario discussion).
Board members pressed for more detail and warned against depleting reserves prematurely. One trustee cited auditor advice that fund balance needs to last multiple years and asked, "If we start spending all that money now, what's gonna happen when we really need it?" Another voiced concern that using a large one-time reserve now could force steeper increases later.
Superintendent-level presentation material included line-by-line plans for future 'budget code' reviews at upcoming meetings, with the superintendent and code owners scheduled to present departmental requests and justifications before the board adopts a final spending amount and the community votes.
Next steps: district staff said they expect more concrete tax-cap numbers and pilot/building-aid figures after state releases in mid-January; administrators will return with updated scenarios at subsequent board meetings and a line-by-line budget review is planned in March. The board did not take a final budget action at the meeting.
