98.5 percent of school budgets approved |
On Board Online • May 23, 2016
By Paul Heiser
Senior Research Analyst
Voters across the state approved almost all school spending plans when they went to the polls on May 17.
Of the 676 budgets put before voters, 662 budgets passed - an approval rate of 98.5 percent. Ten budgets were defeated, and the results of three budgets were not known when On Board went to press.
Budget success was uniform across the state, with no region having less than a 95 percent approval rate. Four regions (Capital Region, Central New York, Mohawk Valley and the North Country) had budget passage rates of 100 percent.
"The high passage rate can be attributed to the hard work of school board members and administrators in crafting wise spending plans," said NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer.
Also contributing to the high approval rate was an average statewide tax levy increase of less than 1 percent and a $1.5 billion state aid increase. The boost in state aid allowed many districts to maintain or increase academic programs and staffing.
Districts that presented budgets that were within their state mandated tax caps garnered near-unanimous approval (99.7 percent), with voters in 635 of the 636 districts approving them. Districts that sought supermajority approval of 60 percent because their proposed tax levies exceeded their caps had a historically high approval rate of 78 percent.
Of the 36 districts that attempted overrides, 28 had their budgets approved. That exceeded last year's rate of 61 percent for districts attempting overrides, as well as the 53 percent rate over the first four years the tax cap has been in effect.
School boards and administrators in districts where budgets were defeated have the option to present a second budget to voters on June 21. If the second vote is defeated, the district must adopt a contingency budget with no more than a zero percent tax levy increase. Districts may forego a second vote and go straight to a contingency budget, which also carries restrictions on spending.
In Orange County, the Florida school district fell just short of a 60 percent supermajority approval with a 59.9 percent passage rate. If just one just one more person had voted yes, the budget would have passed. The district is currently exploring its options with regard to a second budget vote.
Florida had a negative tax cap, meaning it had to decrease its tax levy from the year before to comply with the tax cap. The proposed budget carried a modest 1.2 percent tax increase.
Superintendent Diane Munro questioned the utility of a tax cap law that would mean a budget with such strong public support could be defeated.
"The tax increase was the second lowest in recent memory, and there was no community backlash prior to the vote," she told On Board. "Does this (outcome) reflect the will of the people? I don't think so."
Munro also lamented the shift in focus from spending to taxes since enactment of the tax cap law. "Budget discussions used to revolve around what the district should invest in," she said. "Now all anyone wants to talk about is taxation."
In addition to Florida, 94 other districts were faced with negative tax caps, the most of any year under the tax cap. Of these districts, 20 put up budgets that sought to exceed the tax cap, thus requiring the 60 percent approval. Eighteen of them (90 percent) gained the necessary voter approval.
"Districts with negative caps find themselves in a dicey situation," said Kremer. "They cannot increase their tax levies at all without needing the 60 percent voter approval threshold, which increases their chances of having their budgets defeated."
Kremer sees hope on the horizon, though. "We may be seeing a piercing of the armor in the tax cap," he said. "The high success rate of overrides this year suggests that in some cases, voters are willing to forgo onerous and excessive tax caps in order to better fund their schools."