$27,688,682

The 2026-2027 budget vote will be from 10am to 8pm on Tuesday May 19, 2026 in the Galway CSD Junior/Senior High School Gymnasium.

The budget is typically broken down into 3 component parts made up of salaries, benefits, contracts, equipment, and supplies; called the 3 Part Budget. These parts include:

1. Capital (21% of the budget) - this includes on the facilities and grounds and their upkeep
2. Program (70% of the budget) - all the aspects of education that directly impact student growth and learning
3. Administration (9% of the budget) - the cost to “run” the district, it is the business of public education

Budget development for a school starts almost a year before the fiscal year begins. It includes line by line review of budgets accounts, historical trends, and future projections. Administrators, supervisors, teachers, and staff are consulted in budget development. As more and more information comes in over the course of the school year (i.e. insurance rates, staff changes, enrollment, etc.) the budget is adjusted. Revenue information (i.e. state aid and property tax cap calculation) also impacts how the budget develops.

The 2026-2027 budget will include a 2.99% tax levy increase from the prior year. That’s a total of $374,084 more than was levied last year. This amount will be distributed among all tax payers based on assessed property values and tax rate calculations.

The tax levy limit for 2026-2027 is 2.99%, we will be below the limit.

School district revenue comes from multiple sources. At Galway, about 2% comes from various sources such as interest & earnings on investments, donations, and the sale of property; 48% comes from state aid; and, about 50% comes from the tax levy.

You can learn more about the budget by reading through this webpage, attending board of education meetings, or visiting the district office and asking to review the current budget book.

According to the state law, the public may vote on a school budget only twice in any given year. In the event the proposed budget is defeated by voters, the Board of Education has three choices. They can: 
A.    Put the same budget out to vote again OR

B.    Put a revised budget out to vote OR

C.    Adopt a contingency budget

If the budget vote fails twice, the district must adopt a contingency budget. 

State law establishes a limit on the increase of a contingent budget over the district budget for the prior year. No longer is there a spending cap on contingent budgets. Instead, the tax levy may be no greater than the levy of the prior year. In other words, a district would have to levy the same amount of taxes as in the current year or less – without any adjustments for the state pension rate increases. 

In addition, the administrative component of a contingent budget may not comprise a greater percentage of the contingency budget, exclusive of the capital component, than the percentage which the administrative component had comprised in the prior year’s budget. 

Students' extracurricular activities and athletics are often sacrificed in contingent budgets, all to preserve the academic program and maintain legally binding contractual agreements. Our facilities would not be able to be utilized by outside organizations – youth sports, karate, boy scouts, Galway Players, etc. – if a contingency budget must be adopted. In addition, a contingent budget removes all equipment purchases, removes any raises for management confidential staff (i.e. business office staff, director of facilities, transportation supervisor, etc.), and caps the amount of the administrative portion of the budget.  Contingency budgets are complicated, but essentially, the tax levy under a contingent budget cannot be higher than the levy of the prior year.

The money to purchase the 1 large diesel bus and 2 small gas buses in propositions #2 will come from the general fund. The money to purchase the electric bus in proposition #3 will come from bus capital reserves, which are savings we have set aside for the purpose.
 

No, the maximum tax levy for 2026-27 is 2.99% as stated in proposition #1. Voting yes or no on propositions #2 and #3 will not increase or decrease the 2.99% tax levy.

The traditional buses in proposition #2 are needed to maintain our student bus runs. The electric bus in proposition #3 will show that we are making good faith efforts toward the NYS electric bus mandate which will prevent us from negative consequences. It will also give us the opportunity to collect real data on the electric bus to see how best they will work for us.

Not all of them, but the one we are looking to purchase is both very safe and reliable. We did our homework and found an electric bus company out of California (BYD) that has a long history of success with electric bus fleets. They were a battery company before that began building electric buses, this matters. Most of the local bad news stories out there with electric buses involve buses that were retrofitted with an electric battery (and a different, more volatile battery than BYD’s) and weren't designed to be electric buses originally. You can punch a hole in a BYD battery and try to light it on fire, it will not explode or burn.
 

It depends, but the small electric bus we are looking to purchase (along with charger and auxiliary heater) will cost the district approximately $185,115 out-of-pocket, which includes multiple discounts, rebates, and vouchers. Without those discounts, the bus itself costs $369,615, the electric charger costs $60,000, and an optional auxiliary heater costs $15,000.

The out-of-pocket cost will come from bus capital reserves set aside for that purpose (these are savings that can only be used for bus purchases). The discounts, rebates, and vouchers come from federal & state dollars set aside to help fund the zero-emission bus mandate.

It will not have any impact on your taxes.

The mandate reads that we can only purchase zero-emission (electric) buses starting July 1, 2027 and that we must run an all zero-emission bus fleet by July 1, 2035.
 

Depending on the bus and environmental conditions, up to 160 miles.

Electric buses are plugged into charging stations overnight and between morning and afternoon runs.

Zero-emission buses come with some benefits. The two most obvious are noise reduction and no exhaust emissions. The noise and vibrations of traditional buses can be very difficult for some of our most sensitive students and for students (and staff) with environmental sensitivities and asthma removing the toxic exhaust emissions is a huge benefit.

There are some potential consequences of not making good faith efforts toward meeting the mandate:

1. The New York State Department of Transportation will no longer be inspecting diesel or gas buses after July 1, 2027. Buses without current inspections cannot be used to transport students, this could become a major operational issue for both the school and student and families.
2. Without proper compliance we will forfeit transportation aid, which can be between 1 and 2 million dollars of revenue for the district annually.
3. Funding currently exists to help offset the cost of purchasing zero-emission buses. If we do not take advantage of it now we will be paying full price later.
4. Without buses to transport students or transportation aid we count on, and eventually being forced to pay full price for buses, the community will be asked to bear the operational and financial burden of the mandate.