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Eldred officials outline 2025–26 draft budget with tax-cap placeholder and reserve payback plan
Summary
The district presented a draft 2025–26 budget that includes a 3.97% tax-cap calculation with a $100,000 capital-outlay placeholder, a plan to repay a longstanding cafeteria-fund deficit from reserves over three years, and warnings about declining state transportation and BOCES aid.
The Eldred Central School District presented a draft 2025–26 budget that would use the tax cap and a one-time capital-outlay placeholder to help balance rising costs while drawing on reserves to retire a cafeteria-fund deficit.
Caleb, the district business presenter, told the board the tax-cap calculation in the current draft is 3.97%, which includes a $100,000 capital outlay placeholder that board members can reduce or remove. "In that 3.97% is a $100,000 capital outlay project," Caleb said. He added that that figure is a placeholder and the district could choose a smaller project amount or none at all.
Caleb said the district plans to repatriate a long-standing cafeteria-fund deficit back to the general fund over a three-year schedule rather than the five years the state had allowed, describing the maneuver as a book transfer that will not move cash between bank accounts but will appear on the district's accounting ledgers. "They told me that they'd give me 5 years to pay it back. I don't think we need 5 years, I'm doing it over 3," he said.
The business officer warned the board to expect continued pressure from reduced state aid, singling out transportation aid which he said is moving from roughly 35% reimbursement to about 28%, and a shrinking BOCES refund line. "We're losing some state aid money," he said, citing declines in transportation and BOCES aid that could shave several hundred thousand dollars over time.
Caleb described some offsets built into the draft, including a projected decrease in TRS retirement rates partially offsetting an ERS increase, fuel savings from locked fuel bids, and reductions in out-of-district placement costs. He said the budget as presented (without the cafeteria-fund GL transfer) would be roughly $20,090,000, about $280,000 more than the prior year primarily to cover raises and inflation.
Board members asked procedural questions about the capital project option and when equalization rates would be available; Caleb said those rates typically arrive after the board vote and can materially change tax-rate calculations.
Next steps: the presentation did not include a board vote on the budget. Caleb said additional adjustments remain possible as state aid figures and equalization rates become available before the budget vote.
