Patchogue-Medford budget stays under tax cap, South Country seeks supermajority vote
South Country faces an $8.7 million hole and needs a 60 percent vote, while Patchogue-Medford stays under the cap with bathroom and abatement work on the ballot.
South Country Central School District is asking voters to back a $150.5 million budget with a 13.45 percent tax levy increase, a move that would require a 60 percent supermajority because it exceeds the state cap. The stakes are unusually high: the state comptroller’s review said the district was heading toward a 2025-26 deficit of about $8.7 million, had an unassigned general fund balance deficit of $1.8 million as of June 30, 2025, and could finish the year with a $10.5 million deficit if current trends continued. District officials said they would need to borrow $6 million to balance the 2026-27 budget.
The financial strain has also been visible in the district’s leadership. South Country’s former assistant superintendent for finance and management services resigned in October 2025 and was replaced by an acting assistant superintendent. At a special board meeting on April 20, 2026, the district presented what it described as the fifth version of the budget proposal and took public comment, a sign of how much pressure the plan has placed on families and taxpayers in the district.
Patchogue-Medford is in a far steadier position. Its proposed $252,223,893 budget would raise the tax levy 3.15 percent and the overall budget 2.83 percent, while staying under the tax cap. Interim superintendent Lori Cannetti said the plan reflects “a careful and deliberate process” balancing student needs and taxpayer responsibility. The district also said the cap formula limits the levy, not the tax rate, so the household impact can vary by property.
For Patchogue-Medford voters, the largest dollar items are capital repairs. The plan includes about $1.5 million for bathroom upgrades at Patchogue-Medford High School, Medford Elementary School and Barton Elementary School, plus about $1 million for outdoor abatement of soil and asbestos-containing materials at Bay Elementary School. Voters will also be asked to approve spending $5 million from a capital reserve established in 2022, making this one of the few districts where the ballot could directly shape building conditions as well as the tax bill.
Bayport-Blue Point and William Floyd round out the countywide picture with smaller, but still meaningful, choices. Bayport-Blue Point adopted an approximately $88.4 million budget with a 2.75 percent tax levy increase, which district officials said would translate to roughly $24 more per month in school taxes and would keep all programs in place while expanding some offerings. Superintendent Timothy Hearney announced in January 2026 that he will retire in July after 18 years with the district, and the board has hired School Leadership to help search for his successor.
William Floyd approved a $332,475,894 proposed budget with a 0.99 percent tax increase, which the district says works out to about $48.29 a year, or about 13 cents a day, for the average assessed home. Its ballot also includes two trustee seats, with Angelo Cassarino running unopposed and Robert Taiani facing a challenge from Joseph Barone. Across Suffolk County, the votes reflect a broader fiscal squeeze: Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said 31 school districts were designated in fiscal stress for 2024-25, up from 22 the year before.
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