School Spending In Line With Inflation, But Taxes Higher in 2010-11

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Property taxes per pupil would rise by nearly twice the rate of inflation under proposed school districts budgets that will go to voters around New York State in two weeks, according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The Empire Center’s 2010-11 School Budget Spotlight focuses on proposed tax and spending changes measured on a per-pupil basis for the 658 school districts that have submitted data compiled for the State Education Department’s annual school property tax report cards. State law requires these reports to be issued at least 10 days before annual school board elections and budget votes, which will be held this year on Tuesday, May 18.

Preliminary data from the Education Department indicate that spending per-pupil will increase by an average of 2.1 percent, to a statewide average of $19,912, and per-pupil tax levies will increase by an average of 4 percent, to a statewide average of $11,667, under budgets proposed for the 2010-11 school year, the Empire Center found. Annual consumer price inflation for the coming state fiscal year has been forecast by the state Division of the Budget at 2.2 percent.

On a regional basis, the biggest school budget increases are in Long Island, where the average per-pupil spending increase is 2.9 percent among the schools in the state sample. The Capital Region has the lowest increases, with proposed per-pupil spending hikes of 1.1 percent. Statewide, 191 districts proposed spending increases that exceed the inflation rate.

Average per-pupil tax increases ranged from a low of 2.7 percent in the North Country to a high of 4.6 percent in Western New York. Nearly 74 percent of districts have proposed per-pupil tax levy increases that exceed the inflation rate.

E. J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center, said the latest school budget data highlighted the need for New York State to enact a cap on school property taxes, freeze pay for teachers and other public-sector workers, and reform the Taylor Law. “While next year’s proposed spending increases are below the norm, they aren’t low enough,” McMahon said. “Tax increases of any size in the current economic climate are simply intolerable. A tax cap combined with a wage freeze would ameliorate the impact of state aid cuts and protect homeowners.”

The formula in Governor Paterson’s original 2008 property tax cap would have allowed no school property tax increases in 2010-11, McMahon said