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| Briefing
Bulletin: 2004 Voter Turnout on School Budgets Drops by 17% Number 04-08 June 1, 2004 The results of the May 18 school budget voting produced a passage rate of 84.9 percent. Although this passage rate is slightly higher than the 36-year average passage rate of 82.4 percent, it is below last year’s record high approval rating of 93.4 percent. One factor contributing to last year’s record-setting passage rate was a significant increase in voter turnout. Unfortunately, that level of voter turnout was not sustained this year. NYSUT’s Research and Educational Services staff used a sample of 167 school districts from across the state and compiled the actual budget voting counts for these districts. In 2004, the total number of votes in these districts was 216,736, compared with 261,074 for 2003—a 17.0 percent decrease. From 1997 through 2003, the average number of “YES” votes in these districts was 135,035. In 2004 the number of “YES” votes was 128,073, a decrease of 5.2 percent from the average for the previous seven years. The number of “No” votes in 2004 was 88,690, which was very close to the seven year average of 88,122 (see table). In addition to voter turnout, historically, one of the key factors in predicting whether or not a school budget will be approved by the voters is the amount of the tax levy increase. The lower the increase in the tax levy, the more likely the budget will be approved. According to the Property Tax Report Cards that districts are required to submit to the State Education Department, the average tax levy increase proposed by school districts in their 2004-05 budget was 8.2 percent, which coincidentally, is the exact same average tax levy increase that was proposed by districts in their 2003-04 budgets. |
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