96 percent of school budgets pass across the state

GREENE COUNTY―Voters across New York State approved 96% of proposed school district budgets on Tuesday, according to preliminary results compiled by the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA).

In Greene County, budgets passed in all six school districts. See results.

NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider said districts are accustomed to seeing high budget approval rates every year “because voters recognize the importance of public education and that school boards take their responsibilities as stewards of their schools very seriously.”

“The school budget creation process was especially difficult this year because with the late state budget, school boards had to guess at how much education aid they would receive from the state,” said Schneider.

Despite increasing costs in areas including health coverage, utilities, transportation and contractual obligations, school districts were able to limit their tax levy increases to an average of 2.94% statewide.

All districts in Greene County kept their proposed tax levy hikes below their state cap, with Catskill’s at 2.19%, Cairo-Durham’s at 4.23%, Coxsackie-Athens’ at 2.8%, Greenville’s at 3.86%, Hunter-Tannersville’s at 2.48% and Windham-Ashland-Jewett’s at 4.04%.

NYSSBA gathered results for 661 districts statewide that hold budget votes. A total of 633 school district budgets were approved by voters, while 28 were defeated, which represents a 96% approval rate. Results for seven districts were outstanding. Where budgets were defeated, school districts may again put a budget before voters on June 16.

Statewide, more than three dozen districts sought approval to override their property tax caps this year, meaning their proposed budgets needed a 60% “supermajority” approval to pass. Based on available data, of those seeking an override, NYSSBA estimates 25 budgets passed and 13 failed, a 66% approval rate. Since the tax cap was introduced in 2012, about two-thirds of budgets requiring an override have been approved on the first try.

For the 630 districts whose budget was within the tax cap and needed support from only a majority of voters for budget passage, NYSSBA had data for 623 districts; 608 districts, or 98%, passed on the first try.