This week, voters approved 97 percent of school district budgets across New York. These budgets decide how much money a district has to spend this coming school year, and how much homeowners in the area will pay in school taxes.
In the greater Binghamton area, all the budgets passed. But for some, it has been a bit more complicated.
WSKG’s Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo sat down with Ithaca reporter Aurora Berry and Elmira-Corning reporter Natalie Abruzzo this week, to talk about some of the local school budget election results.
*This transcript has been edited for clarity and to add additional context.
Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo: So Natalie, you saw some dramatic results in your coverage area this year, talk to me about what happened?
Natalie Abruzzo: Two of three school districts that I was watching saw voters reject their proposals on Tuesday.
Both the Horseheads Central and the Corning-Painted Post school district budgets included tax levy increases that exceeded the tax cap.
Horseheads asked for a 7.4 percent increase and Corning-Painted Post asked for a nearly 8 percent increase.
Because these increases were above the state tax cap, 60 percent of voters have to say “yes” for them to pass.
In Horseheads, the budget received 51 percent of the vote. In Corning-Painted Post, the budget received 40 percent. So they both failed.
PTV: How did voters feel about some of the other propositions on the Corning-Painted Post ballot?
NA: A ballot measure to approve buying new buses was also rejected, as was, the budget for the Southeast Steuben County Library.
Now, I should clarify the library budget is a separate entity altogether from the school budget, and this year, the library tax levy was within the tax cap.
That means for the library the tax increase for property owners would be approximately one dollar on a home assessed at $100,000 in its annual tax levy, which means $51 dollars this year instead of $49 dollars from last year.
The library director and the library board are meeting to decide their next steps, and whether it will go back to the polls with its $1.5 million dollar budget request.
PTV: What are you hearing about why voters rejected these requests in the Corning-Painted Post area?
NA: That’s a very good question, Phoebe. Some people in the district are voicing concerns about rising tax costs.
From people who are on fixed incomes, to those seeing costs go up everywhere on top of property taxes, for instance, in the grocery stores, their health insurance, as well as costs to local business owners. They’re all anxious about how to keep up with the rising costs that are outpacing incomes.
Another concern is some believe that the school district spends too much on administrator salaries.
PTV: How much does the district spend on those salaries?
NA: In total $6.9 million this year. Some think that the school district is “top heavy” in its administrative costs, meaning salaries for positions in the schools administration, from the superintendent and assistant superintendents to directors, supervisors, principals and assistant principal.
And there are some very strong opinions about these costs, and the positions, versus the district cutting back on school staff and programs, like the High School Learning Center or its International Baccalaureate program in the middle and high schools or even sports and band. These are all considered vital to students, parents and the district.
There just seems to be a disconnect between the district and the community on what is important and necessary for the district to function and provide valuable learning opportunities for its more than 4,000 students, while also asking the voters to spend a little more each year to sustain these resources.
I have also heard that there is a lack of communication from the district to the 70 percent of the taxpayers who are not directly involved in school activities because they do not currently have students in the schools. They’re not hearing about what the school district is doing all year, and the only time they may hear about the school district is when it’s budget voting time.
So, there’s something that maybe could happen differently in that regard...
During one of my interviews with a school board member, they offered that more communication with the community members in a town hall-like setting and social media posts could help improve dialogue that streamlined direct connection between the district and the community.
PTV: And the budget also failed last year in the Corning-Painted Post school district, correct?
Yes, last year, Corning-Painted Post asked its community to approve a tax levy increase of 5 percent, which was also above the tax cap and required 60 percent of the vote.
It failed in its first round. So the district sent the budget back out to the voters with a tax levy that was within the tax cap, and voters approved it.
PTV: What’s next for these districts?
It is not clear how Corning and Horseheads will proceed with their budgets. They could send out the same budgets to their communities and hope they approve them, or lower their tax levies and send them back out for a vote.
One positive about this year’s Corning-Painted Post school district’s vote is that voter turnout almost doubled last year’s, from 11 percent to 21 percent.
So, people are more civically engaged in the school elections this year.
PTV: What happened with the Elmira City school district?
In Elmira, it was a completely different scenario. The Elmira City school district did not raise its tax levy in what it says is the fifth year in a row, and the budget passed.
PTV: Turning to Aurora, I know the Ithaca area saw a pretty intense school election season last year. What did you see this year?
Aurora Berry: We saw a relatively quiet budget season out here in Tompkins County. All of the plans put forward had comparatively moderate budget and tax levy increases.
Last year, Ithaca and Newfield’s school budgets failed.
But over seventy five percent of voters cast a ballot in favor of Ithaca’s budget this year.
This was supposed to be more of a maintenance budget than anything, with a little over three and a half percent increases in the budget and the tax levy.
For comparison, last year’s first plan for the budget would have increased the tax levy by around 8 percent.
So, last year, we saw a lot of public outcry, lots of folks showed up to public hearings and spoke out against the plan. To give you a sense of the energy this year, only one person from the public spoke at this month’s budget hearing.
PTV: Wow. So what about in Newfield, you said that Newfield’s budget failed last year. What happened this year?
AB: Newfield’s budget also passed this year by around 68 percent. The budget narrowly failed last year by just 12 votes.
Even though all the propositions passed in Newfield, there was yet another narrow decision in the area this year. A proposition allowing for the purchase of an electric bus passed by just 13 votes. That just goes to show how thin the margins can be in these more local elections.
PTV: Thank you so much to Aurora Berry and Natalie Abruzzo. We’ll keep covering what happens next for these school districts and how it affects their communities.
