99 percent of school budgets approved |
On Board Online • May 25, 2015
By Paul Heiser
Senior Research Analyst
Voters approved nearly 99 percent of school spending plans statewide.
Among 676 budgets put up for vote on May 19, 666 passed - an approval rate of 98.7 percent. That does not include the Hempstead school district in Nassau County, the status of whose budget was still unknown at press time.
Budget success was uniform across the state, with no region having less than a 94 percent approval rate, and five regions having budget passage rates of 100 percent.
In Dutchess County's Millbrook school district, 71 percent of voters gave thumbs up to a budget with a tax levy increase of 1.98 percent. "Millbrook, and especially the superintendent, do a great job with the money they are given," Millbrook resident Perry Hartswick told the Poughkeepsie Journal. "All of the money in this budget is necessary to better the education here."
NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer attributed the high approval rate to "the combination of sound budgeting by school boards and a healthy state aid increase." That allowed many school districts to restore programs and positions without dramatic increases in tax levies, he said.
Of the 658 budgets that had levy increases within their tax caps, 99.7 percent passed.
Districts needing 60 percent "supermajority" overrides because their tax levy increases exceeded their allowable limits were less successful than districts that proposed tax levies within their caps. Eighteen districts put up budgets with tax levy increases above their tax cap. Of those, 11 saw their budgets pass - a success rate of 61 percent.
One district that failed to get a supermajority was the Parishville-Hopkinton school district in the North Country. Slightly more than half of 168 residents who made it to the polls voted in favor of a proposed 4.9 percent increase in the tax levy. The district's tax cap was a negative number, so the district would have required 60 percent approval to keep its tax levy flat.
Superintendent Darin P. Saiff told the Watertown Daily Times that he understood that some people expect districts to stay under the cap, but the district has a duty to strive to meet students' educational needs. "I feel the budget this year reflected a responsible approach to a pretty significant, unexpected increase in costs for students with special needs," he said.
Last year 24 districts tried to override their tax caps and 65 percent of them passed on the first vote.
This nine districts whose budgets were defeated this year may put up the same budgets or revised ones for a re-vote on June 16. Alternatively, they may adopt contingency budgets that by law would carry no more than a zero percent tax levy increase.
Many bond propositions passed. In the Williamsville school district in Erie County, residents approved $50 million in construction projects including new turf for athletic fields. In South Glens Falls, voters also approved, 805 to 270, a proposition to purchase five school buses.
In school board races, opponents of state testing made a strong showing. Of 67 candidates endorsed by a Long Island opt-out group, 53 won election, according to Newsday.