Exceeding tax cap proves big risk |
On Board Online • May 27, 2013
Budget votes
By Cathy Woodruff
Senior writer
Raising property taxes beyond the state-imposed cap was a much tougher sell for school budget voters this year.
Of 28 districts that sought to exceed the cap, only a quarter won the needed 60 percent supermajority approval. Last year, 48 districts sought voter permission to exceed their caps, and 60 percent received approval in May voting. Cornwall was only two votes shy of success, and other close losses in override votes were Elmira Heights, General Brown, Newcomb and South Seneca.
Newcomb was shy just 16 votes of the supermajority and one of 14 districts whose budgets would have passed had they needed only a simple majority. “It is frustrating when you’ve got a majority but not this number that New York State created of a supermajority,” Newcomb Superintendent Clark “Skip” Hults told On Board. “It’s an arbitrary percentage. But our job is to go back and find a number the community will support.”
In other respects, overall results were similar to last year. More than 95 percent of 676 budget proposals were approved. In districts where proposed budgets did not exceed the tax cap and only simple majorities were needed for passage, the approval rate was 98.3 percent.
Defeats were dramatic in some affluent districts that sought to pierce the tax cap – Scarsdale and Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County and Niskayuna in Schenectady County. Approval rates in Scarsdale (47 percent) and Niskayuna
(44 percent) fell far short of even simple majorities, and the Briarcliff Manor approval rate was just barely over half.
In those districts where budget plans did not exceed the tax levy limit, the approval margins often were very comfortable. Approval ratios of 3:1 and even 4:1 were common among results reported upstate.
Leaders in some districts said voters seemed to recognize the ongoing effects of budget-cutting moves in previous years with their “yes” votes.
“This budget represents the first time in more than four years that we haven’t seen a long list of devastating programmatic and staffing reductions,” Mohonasen Superintendent Kathleen Spring said in a news release. “We were able to preserve what we still have while still coming in under the cap – but that doesn’t mean that this tax increase (3.95 percent) won’t impact our residents.”
Budget support was particularly strong in western New York and the Capital Region, according to a NYSSBA analysis. Leading regions for approval included the Finger Lakes (98.6 percent), the Southern Tier (98.5 percent) and the Capital Region (97.4 percent). Voters also approved bus purchases in many districts.
“Residents in communities across this state stood strong once again in support of public education,” said NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer. “The high level of voter support for school budgets speaks to the importance of public education. We appreciate the trust that voters place in our school board members and educators.”
Though it was originally billed as a 2 percent property tax cap, the formula for calculating local levy limits is complex and provides exceptions for specific sorts of spending. The average levy limit this year was 5.1 percent, compared with 3.5 percent last year.
A sharp rise anticipated in teacher and employee retirement system contributions cut two ways for districts as they prepared budgets this year. Those costs contributed to an average 2.9 percent hike in expected school spending for 2013-14, compared with 1.5 percent for 2012-13. However, since pension system contributions are one of the exceptions allowed in tax cap calculations, districts had more wiggle room for proposing tax increases without exceeding the cap.
Some 97 percent of proposed budgets relied on reserve funds to help stay within the cap without cutting educational programs and services next year, according to a NYSSBA analysis. In all, districts expected to use $1.3 billion in reserves.
As On Board went to press, districts that suffered defeats were announcing plans to submit revised plans to voters on the statewide revote day of June 18. That included districts that failed to achieve supermajorities.
Voter turnout was unusually high in many of those districts, apparently fueled by aggressive campaigns urging “no” votes.
Clarence voters set a record for turnout for the Erie County district, where the proposed tax hike was 9.8 percent and a fierce anti-budget campaign featured signs and mailers. Officials were taking that as a clear sign to cut more.
“I think any time you have a community cast 8,000 votes and the previous highest turnout was around 3,000, the people have spoken, and it’s up to us to listen to that message,” Clarence Superintendent Geoffrey Hicks told the Buffalo News.
Niskayuna’s turnout against a proposed 5.76 percent levy increase also was high, but some community members also had criticized cuts in the budget. Superintendent Susan Kay Salvaggio issued a statement saying that district leaders would look closely at voter exit surveys before deciding what to do. Nearly $560,000 more would have to be shaved from the $76.3 million plan to bring it under the tax cap, district leaders said at one time.
In Scarsdale, Superintendent Michael McGill said the decision to propose a 3.93 percent tax levy increase, which was $700,000 above the district’s 3.38 percent cap, was related to an effort to reduce dependence on reserves.
“We are trying to wean ourselves from depending on surpluses as income,” McGill told Gannett’s LoHud blog. “We’re concerned that if it’s not next year, then the following year, we won’t have enough.”
Editor-in-Chief Eric Randall contributed to this article.