The Hudson County Schools of Technology Schools (HCST) Board of School Estimate approved its 2026-2027 budget totaling over $84 million, more than a $13.5 million increase in the overall county tax levy, at yesterday’s meeting.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
While the HCST Board of Education (BOE) met on March 31st to approve the budget and related items, the School Board of Estimate (SBOE) is the fiscal oversight body that has final say.
The board consists of: Hudson County Executive Craig Guy, who serves as chair, HCST BOE President John Minella, HCST BOE Vice President Geraldine Perez, Hudson County Board of Commissioners Chair Anthony Romano (D-5), and Hudson County Commissioner Bob Baselice (D-8).
“This request is driven by some unavoidable harsh realities,” began HCST Superintendent fo Schools Tom Macagnano. He noted that the proposed budget is $84,519,874 and necessitates a $56,185,925 Hudson County tax levy.
“This is the first significant adjustment in years, and it’s necessary to correct last year’s underfunding, to offset the $675,000 in state aid loss to pay back our New Jersey State Health Benefits Plan, to restore a positive fund balance, and to maintain mandated services in our provisions. We have already taken significant steps to reduce our spending.”
According to Macagnano, this is a result of an underfunded budget last year, resulting in an approximate $3.64 million deficit carryover, an about $5.6 million negative swing from the previously estimated $1.96 million surplus.
He said this year’s budget was also “grossly underfunded” to the tune of about $13 million.
Macagnano continued that since the HCST doesn’t charge tuition nor transportation fees, the district was left to “depend on the county tax” given fiscal woes raised in the preliminary findings of the forensic audit of HCST’s finances, as only HCV reported.
This culminates in the first large increase in the county tax levy in the HCST budget in a while, Macagnano stated.
While the increase from the 2024-2025 school year budget to the 2025-2026 budget was only about $1 million, the jump from the 2025-2026 budget to next year’s will be about $13.5 million or so.
Hudson County Administrator Abe Antun noted that to accommodate the requested $56,185,925 county tax levy in the HCST budget, the county would have to raise $53,915,069.50, an increase from last year by $11,667,069.50, to address the estimated $3.6 million operating deficit.
He noted that it was a “huge increase” to absorb into the county budget, and that certain steps were going to have to be taken to accommodate such an increase.
“It’s a one-time solution,” he remarked, seeking assurance that the HCST will not come back to the board with such a request again any time soon.
He also noted that they have to make up the difference for the remainder of this year’s fiscal budget in the next year’s budget.
According to Macagnano, the budget will address many fiscal issues raised in the recent audit, including paying over $11 million in outstanding payments with interest to the State Health Benefits Plan (SHBP), to eliminate the structural deficit, and to fund essential staffing and programs at HCST.
He said they have already taken steps to reduce expenses, such as reducing adult high school costs by 50 percent and cutting operations and management maintenance by $2 million each.
Additionally, Macagnano the district has asked the state to “knock off” the interest accumulated on the owed payments to the SHBP, which inclusive of that now totals over $11 million, reducing it to the pre-interest owed of $4,247,051 as stated in the audit.
He said the request among other alternatives presented to the state, would see HCST pay it back over 72 months if approved.
Later, Macagnano further stated that when they uncovered the financial problems last August before approaching this board in November, they “got a pulse” on the finances after auditors came in and began acting by slashing extracurricular costs by 25 percent.
He also said that in this budget, anything “instructional-wise” was spared from cuts to mitigate student impact, but moving forward things may be different.
Each year in February, the state sets the tuition rate, but HCST doesn’t apply what would be $6,411 per student annually, Macagnano said.
While there were proposals on that topic this year ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 per student per year, the idea did not come to fruition, as HCV first reported.
“If we received at the high end, $6,000 per pupil, we would have had $14 million dollars. We wouldn’t have asked for any increase,” Macagnano rationalized.
All options are on the table, however, Macagnano noted, including tuition fees next year to offset any requested increases in the tax levy.
Romano said that there needed to be better messaging about the “reality of the situation” if tuition fees must be implemented eventually.
According to Minella, the SBOE has received the forensic audit report, and as a result, formed a budget committee for the first time.
He said that at every meeting, the administration will report to the committee on how HCST is addressing every item listed in the audit.
“Our charge right now is to get our house in order, take care of the forensic report items, and then look at department by department, on what we can change, how we can be more efficient, and do the same or better job at a less cost,” he declared.
Guy echoed Minella, touting proactive measures taken including replacing leadership across the board in the school district, from the legal advisory team, to the business administrator, to new BOE board members, as well as forming new committees for best practices and cutting expenses.
“I know this was a mountain to climb,” he said, praising HCST staff for working to remedy financial woes.
Guy offered his support as chairman of the SBOE and county executive to HCST as officials digest the preliminary findings of the audit, which he called “on the tail.”
He said the board’s role now was to be “problem solvers,” not just “throwing rocks at HCST,” as they take corrective measures.
The board also adopted a resolution authorizing $1.5 million in capital improvements, such as a new elevator system at Explore Middle School.
This also includes a new security swipe card system at High Tech High School in Secaucus, and new sidewalks outside the school as rain causes the water level underground to rise and shift the concrete slabs during high tide- blocking doors from opening.
The third resolution approved by the board was to amend the local tax levy for the current 25-26 school year budget to fund operations until it ends on June 30th with an increase of $3,683,607.
That budget was initially $67,557,061 with a tax levy of $42,600,000, and was increased via the resolution to a total of $71,020,668 with a tax levy of $46,283,607.
