Post by Chris_Wendt on Jun 20, 2013 12:42:07 GMT -5
Voting on school budgets sounds natural and wise. It is neither. The underlying concept was to give taxpayers control of spending in their local school districts. How do you feel that is working for you? School districts in NY State and libraries which are subsidiaries of their school districts, as is the Wantagh Public Library, are among the very few municipal entities whose budgets are subject to plebiscite (public vote). We do not vote on township budgets, county budgets, state or federal budgets. New York City and the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers do not vote on their school budgets.
Until a few years ago, school budget votes could occur on any Tuesday in May or June at the whim of the school board. This facilitated passing bad budgets due to lack of citizen awareness of the particular voting dates among the 124 LI school districts. Wantagh and six neighboring school districts voluntarily agreed to have a single budget voting date, and that idea was then adopted by the NY Legislature as a common budget voting date for all of LI, and subsequently for the entire state (except the Big Five Cities, which do not have school budget votes). About the same time, Small City School Districts, like Glen Cove and Long Beach were required to have their school budgets approved by voters.
Also as part of the common school budget voting date package was the limiting of re-votes for failed budgets from unlimited to one re-vote, and the one re-vote was limited to a single Tuesday in June.
This “Do-Over” voting seems un-American, and it is. It has led some school boards to float “trial budgets” to see if they could put them over on their voters. But it is this very concept, the “Do-Over” school budget vote that tells the tale about why we vote on our school budgets at all. The real reason for voting on school budgets has zero to do with controlling spending (or taxes), but has everything to do with insulating state politicians from having any accountability whatsoever for school taxes or school spending which ultimately drives school taxes. School budget voting, and especially contingent or “austerity” budgets that can result from failed budgets also insulates those same state politicians from any blame or responsibility for program cuts, increased class sizes, staff reductions or even school closings that follow. Whatever the outcome of any school budget voting or “Do-Over” voting, YOUR state legislators can hold themselves blameless from the actions of “The People” who passed or defeated your school budget in any given year.
The irony, however, is that nearly all of our school funding, school spending, and school taxation problems are the fault, responsibility, and blame of the State Legislature! These problems are worth ticking-off, here:
This has worked extremely well: every year we re-elect the same incumbents to their same offices in Albany, almost never holding any of them accountable for anything.
Now we have a new wrinkle in school budget voting law and lore: the 60% Super-majority to override something called the “Two-Percent Tax Cap”. This will be the subject of my next edition of this blog.
Thanks for reading along.
Chris Wendt
Until a few years ago, school budget votes could occur on any Tuesday in May or June at the whim of the school board. This facilitated passing bad budgets due to lack of citizen awareness of the particular voting dates among the 124 LI school districts. Wantagh and six neighboring school districts voluntarily agreed to have a single budget voting date, and that idea was then adopted by the NY Legislature as a common budget voting date for all of LI, and subsequently for the entire state (except the Big Five Cities, which do not have school budget votes). About the same time, Small City School Districts, like Glen Cove and Long Beach were required to have their school budgets approved by voters.
Also as part of the common school budget voting date package was the limiting of re-votes for failed budgets from unlimited to one re-vote, and the one re-vote was limited to a single Tuesday in June.
This “Do-Over” voting seems un-American, and it is. It has led some school boards to float “trial budgets” to see if they could put them over on their voters. But it is this very concept, the “Do-Over” school budget vote that tells the tale about why we vote on our school budgets at all. The real reason for voting on school budgets has zero to do with controlling spending (or taxes), but has everything to do with insulating state politicians from having any accountability whatsoever for school taxes or school spending which ultimately drives school taxes. School budget voting, and especially contingent or “austerity” budgets that can result from failed budgets also insulates those same state politicians from any blame or responsibility for program cuts, increased class sizes, staff reductions or even school closings that follow. Whatever the outcome of any school budget voting or “Do-Over” voting, YOUR state legislators can hold themselves blameless from the actions of “The People” who passed or defeated your school budget in any given year.
The irony, however, is that nearly all of our school funding, school spending, and school taxation problems are the fault, responsibility, and blame of the State Legislature! These problems are worth ticking-off, here:
- State Pension (TRS & ERS) costs
- School employee & retiree health care mandates
- the Triborough Amendment to the Taylor Law which perpetuates raises and benefits without the need for negotiations
- Section 3020a of the Education Law which makes it nearly impossible to fire school teachers or administrators without school districts incurring exorbitant litigation costs.
This has worked extremely well: every year we re-elect the same incumbents to their same offices in Albany, almost never holding any of them accountable for anything.
Now we have a new wrinkle in school budget voting law and lore: the 60% Super-majority to override something called the “Two-Percent Tax Cap”. This will be the subject of my next edition of this blog.
Thanks for reading along.
Chris Wendt