Last week, I posted Dave Cunningham’s excellent response to an editorial writer at Newsday who voted against an increase in the budget of the West Babylon public schools in Long Island, where his own daughters got a great education and went on to outstanding colleges. The budget went down to defeat, and a new vote was scheduled for June 17. Because of Governor Cuomo’s tax cap of 2%, school districts need a supermajority of 60% to increase their budget to meet rising costs. One district in New York was supported by 59.9% of voters (which would be considered a landslide in an election for public office), yet the whole school district lost the vote because of the lack of a single vote to reach 60.0%.
In his letter, Dave Cunningham pointed out that the West Babylon schools had lost $4 million a year for four years due to Cuomo’s “gap elimination” program. The schools were hard-pressed to provide the same quality of education that the editorial writer’s daughters had received before in the era before budget cutting became the new normal.
The district budget came up for re-vote yesterday, and it passed easily, with a yes vote of 72.5%. Any elected official would call that a landslide. The budget that passed involved deep budget cuts: “West Babylon’s budget will raise spending 0.63 percent and taxes 1.36 percent. In trimming that budget, the district cut the equivalent of 9.9 teachers, 18 hall monitors and a number of off-site sports.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
See you this time next year!
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Some clarification of the NYS “tax cap” for out-of-staters:
It’s really a cap on the tax levy, in other words, how much money must be raised through local property taxes – the “local share” – to meet a school’s or a municipality’s budget.
The 2% figure is totally misleading. Each school district’s cap is calculated yearly by a complicated process (known only, I suspect, by the custodians in the NYSED building a la the Dilbert cartoon character). Some districts’ caps are above 2%, while others, as in West Babylon’s case this year, fall below 2%.
As Diane has reported, a district that keeps its tax levy increase below its cap needs only a simple majority to pass the budget. To pass a budget that goes above the cap requires a supermajority of 60%.
Another part of this “reform” is that a school budget can only be put up for a vote twice. If a budget fails two times, the school must adopt a contingency budget that does not allow for any increase in the tax levy amount and will likely result in cuts to many non-mandated programs.
Unlike school boards whose budgets must go up for a public vote, the boards and councils of municipalities (villages, towns, counties) can vote to waive their tax levy caps.
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FYI, the upscale Dallas, TX, suburb Frisco this spring passed a referendum bond issue of $775,000,000 by 77% to build 14 new schools. Some Texans care about public education. — Edd Doerr
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How much larger will this make the education gap in Texas?
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I always love your good news and breaking news Diane!
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From the linked Newsday piece: “The tiny Bridgehampton school district Tuesday won what many staffers had called a political gamble when voters approved a $12.3 million budget carrying the year’s biggest percentage tax hike of any system in Nassau or Suffolk counties.
“Sayville and West Babylon, which offered revised budgets with much smaller tax increases, both won large majorities in the revote.
“Bridgehampton’s budget — with its 8.76 percent hike in tax collections for the 2014-15 school year — pulled 240 “yes” votes to 145 “no” votes, garnering approval of 62.3 percent of those voting. The district serves 169 students on the Island’s semirural South Fork.”
12.3 million / 169 = works out to a cool $72,781 per student. Any reaction from the district?
“”It’s certainly a relief — momentarily,” said Ron White, the board president.”
Understandable. I mean, can you imagine the horrors of having to open up shop in September with just $68,000 to spend per kid?
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Bridgehampton is not representative of any school district. It is one of the richest enclaves in America, but the people who own the great mansions don’t live there.
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I’m well aware that the people who are footing the bill don’t send their own kids there, but I think the reaction of the school board president is illuminating.
Maybe if they get another override next year and get over $80,000 per kid they could spare a few hundred bucks to send to a district in the Mississippi Delta or along the Rio Grande. Heck, maybe even Riverhead or Greenport would appreciate a small donation!
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Tim, as you know, Bridgehampton has amazing property taxes. Maybe they could share with West Babylon.
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You get what you pay for. Too bad for the children who have to give up part of the very things which make school an exciting, dynamic place.
However, I’m not surprised.
A number of years back, the Erie County Executive presented two budgets. Budget A was the status quote including a modest increase to cover rising costs in salaries and benefits. Budget B, the red line budget, had major across the board cuts which would effect all county services. The intent was for everyone to run screaming from Budget B so that the preferred Budget A would get overwhelming support.
WRONG!
The population clamored for Budget B, not caring that the slashed budget was unreasonable, and even unsustainable. The resulting cuts made no sense, since many of the items slashed were paid for by the federal government (which somehow got by the Erie County Legislature) and did not reduce the budget at all, but eliminated essential programs for the citizens. My favorite inaneness was closing all but one Motor Vehicle Department (one of the few services which actually added money into the coffers). Who knew that people who mailed in their DMV business to NYS or went to the next county over, were giving money to other government agencies which were not Erie County. That put a dent into the budget. Oh, and money had to be sent back to individuals who had rented shelters in the Erie County Parks which were now closed (but had to still be maintained) More money lost.
Bureaucracy at its worst.
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