As NYS budget talks continue, LI school officials left in limbo over 2025-26 aid 

Long Island school officials who face tight deadlines for their local budgets are voicing frustration over the state's delay in producing its own budget, which would include a multibillion-dollar package of educational funding aid for the 2025-26 school year. 

Under state law, school districts by April 25 must approve budget proposals for submission to local residents. Voting on those plans is scheduled for May 20. 

However, local authorities note they can only estimate how much assistance they will get from Albany to help finance such spending. Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators are more than two weeks late in reaching agreement on an aid package that would be part of a state-level budget, which was due April 1. Last year's agreement on state aid was 19 days late.

For the Island's 124 districts, state aid accounts for about 32% of revenue, with local property taxes providing most of the remainder.

"It's disappointing that we are once again facing a late state budget adoption this year," said Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. "It would be helpful if the state would return to on-time budgets, especially when policy issues that have nothing to do with education funding delay the process." 

Vecchio, in a email to Newsday on Wednesday, added that it was especially important for school systems to have a complete picture of available revenue in an era when state tax caps limit the amount of money they can raise on their own. 

Hochul and legislative leaders this week have reported progress in the state budget negotiations, which largely revolve around criminal-law issues unrelated to education. Hochul and State Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) have said that if a state budget deal isn't finalized soon, the governor's office could provide an estimate of state aid to schools, Newsday has reported.

In January, the governor proposed in her annual budget message that "foundation" aid, the state's biggest source of school money, be boosted $1.46 billion. More recently, the State Senate has called for an additional $680 million in aid statewide on top of the executive plan, while the Assembly wants to provide $569 million more, according to comparisons from state school-board representatives.

Locally, school administrators have mostly relied on the governor's numbers or figures close to them in fashioning their budgets, while they await the final funding determination.

Such is the case in the Commack district, where the school board on April 10 adopted a $233 million budget proposal for 2025-26. Estimated budget revenue included about $51.9 million in state aid.

Laura Newman, Commack's associate superintendent for business and operations, told those attending the board meeting that her budget calculations were based partly on the governor's preliminary aid figures. 

"The state is mandated to have a state budget in place by April 1 — they missed that mark," Newman said. 

By John Hildebrand

john.hildebrand@newsday.com@johnhnewsday

John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.