It is school budget season across the region. Some school districts in Steuben and Chemung counties are proposing no increases in tax levies.
School districts will bring their budgets for the 2026-2027 school year to voters in May.
Last year, Corning-Painted Post Area School District (C-PP), Horseheads Central School District (HCSD) and Prattsburgh Central School District (PCSD) all failed to pass their budgets on the first try.
The C-PP school board voted on March 18 not to exceed a tax cap of 2.56 percent, which is the tax levy limit for the district that only requires 50 percent plus one voter approval at the polls.
The district’s first draft of the proposed budget is $150,092,232 and includes a $3,860,169 million budget gap.
Corning-Painted Post Superintendent Michelle Caulfield said the district is confident in its approach to stay within the tax cap this year.
“The last two years, going over the tax cap is really what provided stress for our community,” said Caulfield. “Everyone right now is seeing the same increases in their utilities at home, gas price increases, food increases, and when you see that at home, and then you're also asked to support more in another area, it causes stress. You're trying to figure out which thing to support more, and that just provides undue stress for families.”
Bridging the $3.8 million budget gap could mean cuts to services not mandated by the state, including sports, arts programming, school clubs, school resource officers, the High School Learning Center, the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme for grades six through 10 and classroom and student support.
“All reductions in finances come at a loss of something, so it is prioritizing what programming meets the needs of the most students in the district,” said Caulfield. “And that's the approach that we're taking.”
The Horseheads Central School District budget proposal has $113,323,610 million in expenditures with a $2,167,045 budget gap, according to a Feb. 26 presentation.
It is unclear what the proposed budget is for Prattsburgh Central School District. WSKG reached out to the district and will update this article when we hear back.
A $160,727,766 budget was proposed by the Elmira City School District (ECSD) and according to the presentation slides, there is no increase to the tax levy. In a Feb. 11 budget presentation, the district states it could implement a 1.98 percent tax levy. However, the district is proposing a zero percent tax levy.
The projected tax rate for the ECSD is $13.39 per 1,000 and is expected to be confirmed in August according to a district spokesperson.
All school budgets are contingent on the state budget due April 1.
School boards will vote to adopt their budgets on various dates in mid-April. District websites provide dates for final budgets to be presented to the voters.
Voters go to the polls to approve school budgets across the region on May 19.
