LISBON — The School Committee’s proposed budget for 2025-26 could significantly raise the amount that would come from property taxes by almost 8%.

The $21.27 million proposed budget is 3.2% more than last year’s $20.6 million. The amount to be raised through property taxes is expected to be $8.93 million, a nearly 8% increase compared to $8.28 million raised last year.

The School Department is expected to receive roughly $11.82 million from the state toward next school year’s budget, a 1.1% increase from the $11.7 million received for this year’s budget.

Several factors impacting the budget are higher insurance costs for staff, Superintendent Rick Green told town councilors at a March 11 meeting. Administrators budgeted for a 9% increase but Green said it could be much higher.

Several school districts have reported higher than expected costs for staff insurance in their budget proposals.

Because of provisions in staff union contracts, Green told councilors at the March meeting that it is not easy to switch insurance providers in hopes of saving money because union contracts stipulate that any new health insurance providers must maintain a similar level of coverage for staff.

Green said he is keeping an eye on federal grants because there have been many changes to the U.S. Department of Education in recent weeks.

Council Chairperson Fern Larochelle said at that March meeting that costs increase by hundreds of thousands of dollars every year due to factors over which officials have little control. When officials put off costs for necessary projects or services, eventually they need to be done and result in budget increases.

“Last year the town, on the municipal side, cut out a lot of the stuff that we were kind of hoping that we should have done and came up with the zero budget and covered a lot of expenditures, which is fine because we can do that every now and then, but the next year we get whiplash and we actually pay for it,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to go out this year and say we kept taxes flat, because that is just unrealistic.”

The School Committee is expected to formally adopt the budget May 12, with a scheduled public hearing May 13 at 7 p.m. at the town office. The budget referendum is June 10.