Riverhead school district residents Wednesday night got a first look at the superintendent’s proposed 2026-2027 budget: a $218.88 million spending plan that would increase overall spending by about $7.45 million, or 3.52%, while keeping the tax levy increase within the district’s state-calculated tax levy cap of 2.91%.
Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business Marianne Cartisano gave the first presentation of the 2026-2027 budget at the middle school.See presentation document below.
The proposed budget is “a little tight, but very doable,” Cartisano said, emphasizing that the district began building the spending plan by setting a firm boundary on the revenue side: the district would not pierce the tax levy cap.
“You’ve heard me say it before, we start with revenues,” Cartisano said, explaining that the district’s first step was calculating the tax levy limit under New York’s property tax cap law and working from there.
The tax cap is often misunderstood as a flat 2%, she said, when in reality it is a formula that produces different caps for different districts each year. The formula takes into account a limited number of exemptions, including growth in the district’s full taxable property, certain contributions toward employee pensions, expenditures for some court orders and the local portion of capital expenditures.
Riverhead school district’s tax levy cap for 2026-27 is 2.91%, up from 2.16% in 2025-26, Cartisano said.
Once the district sets its tax levy ceiling, she said, it turns to state aid and other revenue streams to determine how much spending can be supported. For Riverhead, that includes an estimated $89 million in state aid under the governor’s proposed budget, plus what Cartisano described as a tentative additional $1 million the district hopes to see in state support tied largely to special education costs.
Other revenue streams include: PILOT payments [payments in lieu of taxes]; out-of-district tuition; income from services to other districts and the sale of equipment; unemployment, workers comp and pension reserves; and the application of fund balance.
Total anticipated revenues for 2026-2027 is $105.6 million. The difference between anticipated expenditures and anticipated revenues is the amount to be raised by the tax levy: an estimated $113.3 million.
Cartisano told the board that the most difficult pressure point on both the revenue and spending sides of the budget remains special education — an area she said has been escalating as more students arrive in kindergarten with established needs and individualized education programs (IEPs).
Source: RiverheadLOCAL
