Cornwall schools budget heads to vote, taxes projected to rise 3 percent

Cornwall taxpayers will decide whether to back a $97,086,599 operating budget on May 19, a plan that would raise the school tax levy about 3 percent and add roughly $354 a year, or about $30 a month, to the bill on a home assessed at $350,000.

The spending plan is about $4.1 million higher than this year’s budget, with more than $2.3 million of the increase tied to salaries and another $1 million-plus driven by health insurance costs. Assistant Superintendent for Business John Fink told the Board of Education the district plans to use $2.5 million from fund balance to keep the increase down. In March, a preliminary $97,603,490 budget left a $3,535,583 gap before that reserve money was applied, and Fink said state aid was expected to rise by $409,912 while building aid would climb by $1,315,000 as capital projects wound down. The Governor’s proposed increase in universal pre-K reimbursement to $10,000 per student could bring in about $480,000 more.

The tax levy remains inside the district’s cap. Fink said Cornwall’s cap would allow an increase of up to 5.36 percent, but the draft budget uses the smaller 3 percent increase. State budget action is still pending, so final numbers could move before voters cast ballots.

The ballot is not just about the budget total. It also determines who sits on the Cornwall Central School District Board of Education, a nine-member board whose members serve three-year terms and help steer staffing, spending and long-range facilities plans. Qualified voters must be U.S. citizens, at least 18, residents for 30 days and registered with the county or district. District-only registration is available at 24 Idlewild Avenue in Cornwall-on-Hudson, and the district’s vote information also lays out absentee-ballot rules.

Cornwall voters have backed the district’s financial plans before. Last May, they approved the 2025-26 budget, $92,986,803 with a 2.75 percent property tax levy increase, by 1,123 to 411, and also approved a new capital reserve fund by 1,208 to 330. In May 2022, they approved just over $23 million in capital projects, work that is now essentially finished except for a window replacement project at Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School, expected to wrap up in summer 2026. The district said its May 2025 capital reserve fund held just over $2.5 million as of June 30, 2025, money that could help finance a proposed new $20 million capital project without raising local school taxes.