Beacon Schools Eyeing Max Cap

State allows 5.15 percent tax-levy increase

The Beacon school district is considering taking advantage of the full 5.15 percent tax-levy increase it has been allowed for 2025-26 by New York State to raise more than $50 million in property taxes.

A state tax cap for public school districts and local governments limits annual increases to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. However, other factors in a complicated formula can push the allowable increase well beyond that. At Haldane, the cap for 2025-26 is 3.38 percent and at Garrison, 5.78 percent, although both districts will likely ask voters for less. 

In Beacon’s case, two factors in the formula raised the amount of property taxes the district can collect. First, it is the first budget to include debt service on a $50 million capital project approved by voters in 2024. Second, and more significantly, development added $1.2 million to the levy. 

Beacon has had the highest tax-base growth in Dutchess County for at least five years. In 2024-25, new construction allowed the district to add $793,795 to its levy. In 2023-24, it added $721,620.

The administration has yet to propose its spending plan for 2025-26, but the district will spend $83.9 million in 2024-25. Its revenue this year includes $47.7 million in property taxes, or 3.91 percent more than 2023-24. The school board will continue a discussion of the 2025-26 budget at its March 24 meeting and vote on the plan on April 22. District voters will have their say on May 20. 

If the budget is approved, worst-case scenario figures provided by the district estimate an average $122 annual tax increase for Beacon homeowners, $159 for district residents in Fishkill and $161 for those in the Town of Wappinger. 

During the school board’s meeting on Monday (March 10), some members questioned whether the district should seek the maximum allowable increase.

“It seems a little high at 5 [percent], but I know what we’re trying to do,” said Eric Schetter. “If we could get it below 5, I would be happier with that. I think it would ‘sell’ more” to voters.

However, Meredith Heuer, who joined the board in 2016, noted that “if we don’t use what we can with our levy, we fall behind very quickly.” The district chose not to seek the maximum allowable increase during one of her first years as a board member, she said, “and the next thing you know, you’re negotiating for a teachers’ contract, and there is no money.” 

Superintendent Matt Landahl said Monday that pushing the budget “to cap” would allow the district to potentially expand from eight- to nine-period days at Rombout Middle School, giving students receiving extra academic help more time for electives and expanding class topics beyond core subjects. That change, if implemented, would probably require the district to hire four full-time teachers, he said. 

Additional reading and math teachers are needed at the elementary level, and the district hopes to expand a reading-support program offered in grades 3-5 to include grades K-2. 

“This is a lot, and to be real, we probably cannot afford all of this,” Landahl said. “But I want to create, at minimum, a two-year plan to get this done. We want to look at multi-year planning for these larger initiatives, to make them affordable, to make them sustainable.”

Another factor for the board to consider is the unpredictable nature of its state and federal funding. Last year, the district received no increase in state funding, which typically accounts for a third of its revenue. That included foundation aid — state funding without spending restrictions — which was flat from 2023-24 to 2024-25, at about $21 million. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed 2 percent foundation aid increases for nearly every district in the state, including Beacon, for 2025-26, but “there’s concern on our end, in terms of: How long is that going to be the case?” Landahl said. 

Federal funding makes up far less of the district’s budget — about 2 percent — but it pays for reading teachers and special-education support. If the Trump administration were to cut federal funding to schools, “that would be things we would have to replace with our funds,” Landahl said. “We can’t just say, ‘The feds aren’t paying for it anymore’” and shut the programs down.