HERMANN — Administrators in the Gasconade County R-1 School District are preparing for what could be a substantial shortfall of funding from Jefferson City as state government sees a slowdown in revenues, putting even more pressure on locally generated dollars to meet operating expenses.

“We don’t have a property tax problem,” R-1 Superintendent Geoff Neill Tuesday morning, Nov. 4, told the board of the Hermann Regional Economic Development (HRED) Corporation, “we have a state problem.”

His comment was directed at the many legislative attempts last year — and the possible continued efforts in the upcoming 2026 session of the Missouri General Assembly — to reduce property taxes at the local level. However, those legislators looking to reduce property taxes to this point have offered no firm plan for replacing the revenue that would be lost.

The superintendent noted that administrators are preparing to deal with a reduction in state funding, bracing for what might be a shortfall of dollars in most if not all areas of public education that receive money from the state. That would put added pressure on the revenue raised at the local level. Neill said that Missouri has fallen to the bottom of the list of all states in terms of the amount of money from state government while the percent of local support (property taxes) is among the highest level.

“State funding is literally 20 percent of our revenue,” he said. The local effort amounts to about 70 percent while the remaining 10 percent is provided through the programs funded by the federal government.

R-1 administration officials are hoping to highlight their concerns about state funding and other public education-related issues during the district’s annual Government Relation Day, set for Friday, Dec. 12, in the Hermann High School Library. With next year being an election year, Neill said he hopes there will be several public officials on hand for the gathering.

Neill and other public education officials in the next few weeks might be able to get a sense of the direction the Missouri General Assembly will be going in the 2026 session of the state legislature. Dec. 1 marks the beginning of pre-filing of bills for the 2026 session that begins in early January.

In other matters, Hermann Area District Hospital Administrator and Chief Executive Officer Bill Hellebusch told the HRED board that the healthcare facility is going to have to rely a little while longer on contracted agency workers. Replacing contract staffers with local hires has been a primary goal for the hospital administration. However, it has been difficult to hire for some positions, such as night-shift nurses.

He said October was a “really good month” regarding gross revenue, with the hospital posting about $3.7 million.

“That’s the highest we’ve posted in revenue in the last 10 years,” he said. However, that number could have been a bit higher if the hospital could have accommodated all who needed to be admitted to one of the 24 acute-care beds, Hellebusch added, noting that a half-dozen patients had been turned away simply because of a staff shortage.

“We’d better (add) staff to where we can fill our beds and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “We do have a staffing plan to get there. I really feel like we’re close to getting there.”

On another front, Hellebusch told his fellow HRED directors that he would be attending a gathering Friday of other independent hospital officials as part of the creation of a Clinically Integrated Network — an organization designed to give smaller independent hospitals a larger voice during negotiations with vendors, insurance companies and others.

By being part of a coalition, the hospitals can effectively pool their assessed values to obtain better deals for all participating healthcare facilities. For instance, Hellebusch explained that instead of HADH, with a value of $37 million to $38 million, negotiating on its own, the network of possibly 25 hospitals can negotiate while having a combined value of $4 billion to $5 billion.

“That is a huge difference,” he said, adding that the Hermann hospital can greatly benefit from being part of this organization. “We have more to gain from this network than other hospitals,” he said.