As part of its process of preparing a budget for the 2026/2027 school year, the Hendrick Hudson Central School District is seeking state and federal money to help offset the loss of more than $25 million in funds it would have received from the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Funds from the now-closed power plant had been providing at least a quarter of the school district’s revenues.
The school district is looking at proposed spending of about $102 million for the 2026/2027 school year. To avoid a $6.6 million budget gap, the district would need to raise property taxes by more than 8% in addition to drawing $6.6 million from the school district’s financial reserves.
For the 2025/2026 school year, the budget was $96,232,500 and saw a property tax increase of 4.58%.
Indian Point had been in operation for 59 years until April 30, 2021, when its last operating reactor, Unit 3, was shut down. Unit 2 had closed on April 30, 2020. Unit 1 had been shut down in 1974. It had begun operations in 1962.
Under a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement with the plant’s owner Entergy when Indian Point was operating and now with Holtec, which took over for the plant’s decommissioning, Hendrick Hudson had been receiving approximately $25 million a year during the plant’s prime operating years, with payments being gradually reduced to $3.3 million in the 2025/2026 school year.
The school district says that over the past several weeks there have been meetings with officials at multiple levels of government to push for new state and federal aid. These included a meeting with Congressman Mike Lawler on March 6, a visit from representatives of U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office on March 11, and a visit from a representative of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office on March 13. Most recently, the district held a follow-up meeting on March 25 with State Assistant Secretary for Education Ileana Infante to continue discussions around potential state support.
“The loss of Indian Point revenue continues to have a real and measurable impact on our district,” Hendrick Hudson Superintendent Michael A. Tromblee said. “We are actively working with our partners in government to identify solutions that will help stabilize our finances, protect our educational programs, and reduce the pressure on local taxpayers. Through the state’s Electric Generation Facility Cessation Mitigation Program, there are funds that have been allocated but remain unutilized. Making those resources available would provide immediate relief to a community and to students who continue to feel the impact of this significant revenue loss.”
