During a tense City Schools of Decatur board meeting on Tuesday, the board voted to amend and pass the 2026 fiscal year tentative budget with a half-mil tax increase.
The FY26 tentative budget was proposed after two rounds of drafts. The budget’s expenditures total $110.6 million, down from the FY26 second draft’s $113.8 million, but still $4.6 million above the budget’s anticipated $106 million in revenue.
Board member Hans Utz argued against passing the tentative budget without trying to balance it. Utz would not support “spending $3 million in deficit spending.”
The main budgetary increase from FY25 comes from teaching salaries, which would see teachers receive a minimum 4% increase.
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