May 2005

Number 05-13

On May 17th, school districts across the state submitted their budgets for a public vote. Overall, the vast majority of those budgets were approved — 567 of the 679 districts reported to the State Education Department that their budget was approved and 112 districts reported their budget was defeated — an 83.5% approval rate. This 83.5% passage rate is below last year’s passage rate of 84.9%, but just above the 36-year average passage rate of 82.4%.

School districts in four downstate counties —Nassau, Orange, Suffolk and Westchester — had a more difficult time winning voter approval of their budget proposals. Of the 112 budget defeats, 58 came from these four counties.

Districts with a defeated budget may resubmit the same budget to the voters, resubmit a revised budget to the voters, or adopt a contingency budget. If a second budget proposal is defeated, the district must adopt a contingency budget. Spending increases under a contingency budget are capped at 3.24 percent over last year’s level.

The following page provides a listing of those districts that had their budget defeated.

2005 Budget Defeats
(by county)

BKB/sh/52865

DOWNLOAD: COMPLETE BULLETIN [129K]

NYSUT's Division of Research and Educational Services serves as the research arm of NYSUT, providing information and assistance to Field Services, to other NYSUT divisions, and to local leaders. In addition, the Division provides a variety of information and workshops to local leaders and to local member organizations.

NYSUT.ORG. Copyright New York State United Teachers. 800 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, New York, 12110-2455. 518.213.6000.