Wyomissing budget briefing: presenter outlines $3.3M preliminary shortfall for 2026'27, board discusses 3.0'3.5% tax options

The district finance presenter told the board the year-end projection for the current fiscal year improved from an originally budgeted $700,000 fund-balance draw to a projected use of roughly $485,000. Turning to the 2026'27 preliminary general fund budget, the presenter warned that, under a 0% local-tax assumption and without additional state aid, the district faces a projected $3,300,000 deficit.

"Right now, if we do nothing at all, this would be your preliminary budget with a deficit of $3,300,000," the finance presenter said, laying out revenue and expenditure drivers that include higher-than-expected wages and benefits, an increase in transportation costs under a new contract, projected increases in plant operations (including natural gas and insurance), debt-service adjustments, and higher shared costs at the regional career and technical center.

The presenter described a set of tax-increase options to reduce the gap and said he favored options around 3.0'3.5% because they better narrow the deficit. Under a modeled 3.5% tax increase (using an illustrative $150,000 assessed home), the presenter said the district would generate about $996,000 locally and reduce the projected deficit to roughly $2,300,000. He cautioned the modeling did not yet incorporate the final homestead exclusion figures (certified by the county on May 1) and did not rely on any assumed new state basic-education or special-education increases beyond amounts already received.

Board members and finance staff discussed other levers, including use of committed fund-balance lines (the presenter reported an audited fund balance of $16,879,000 as of June 30, 2025), whether to preserve an 8% unassigned fund-balance policy, and options to use targeted committed funds such as PSERS/fee reserves. One board member urged caution about overusing reserves: "If you over tap the fund balance, it's gone," the member said.

The presenter ran a five-year projection showing that repeated reliance on fund balance while using the Act 1 index for tax increases would draw the fund balance down significantly and could produce a negative fund balance within six years under the modeled scenario. He said he would present two budget options at the May meeting (roughly 3.0% and 3.5% with model variants on state revenue assumptions) to preserve board flexibility.

Board members asked for additional context on total tax burden (district plus borough and county) and an illustration of the dollar impact to the typical Wyomissing homeowner. The presenter said he would provide comparisons with nearby jurisdictions and updated homestead-exclusion and earned-income-tax figures in the Friday update and at the May presentation.

The board took no formal budget vote at the committee meeting; the session concluded with a motion to adjourn.