A near record number of school budgets were approved across New York State in Tuesday’s vote. Many attributed the relative lack of controversy to the three-year-old property tax cap that limits tax-levy increases and an increase in state aid.

Almost every school budget that stayed within the state’s property tax cap — 99.7 percent of budgets — was approved in this week’s vote, according to the New York State School Board Association. The School Board’s Dave Albert said the tax cap, enacted by the governor and legislature three years ago, played a role, but was not the only factor. “We’ve actually seen in more recent years higher passage rates, and that trend preceded the cap,” said Albert. He said the 2008 recession was a factor. “There certainly seems to be a connection between low taxes and high passage rates.”

Only 18 of the more than 700 school districts proposed budgets exceeded the two percent per year tax cap. By law, those spending plans require a supermajority of 60 percent or more of the voters approve the budget. Just over half of the measures passed.

EJ McMahon, from the think tank The Empire Center and a proponent of the tax cap, said the cap, plus penalties and restrictions for school districts that try to break the cap, has led to fewer controversies over school spending plans. “They’re coming up with very low proposed tax increases,” McMahon said. “The votes reflect that.”

Despite the less contentious process, Albert said school boards do not like the property tax cap. “School board members are elected by their communities to make decisions about education programming and property taxes,” he said. Albert said school boards believe if state government lived up to its responsibilities to provide aid, the cap would not be needed. He said schools were able to restore programs cut during the recession years such as music, art, pre-kindergarten, and all-day kindergarten, because of this year’s $1.3 billion increase in state aid. “In many cases these were restorations of programs that had been lost during the recession,” Albert said.

The smaller number of controversial budget proposals in recent years has led to a further dip in voter turnout. Normally 10 to 15 percent of all registered voters cast ballots on a school budget; board members predict that number will be 20 percent lower this year when the final tallies are calculated.

Now that school budgets are mostly resolved, school boards, teachers, and state lawmakers are pushing to overturn a provision in the state’s budget that requires new teacher evaluations to be in place by the fall. Albert said it is “unworkable.” “We don’t want to repeat the sins of the past as we did a few years ago when we rushed to negotiate agreements,” Albert said.

The State Assembly voted to extend the deadline for another year until the fall of 2016, and to delink some school aid increases to completion of the new performance reviews. Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, a Democrat from Rockland County who voted yes in the near unanimous vote, said it is important to correct what many in the Assembly believe are mistakes in the less than two month old law. Zebrowski said, “The fight is not over and lawmakers are taking into consideration concerns from parents and teachers.”

The new leader of the State Senate said he also wants to make changes to the latest teacher evaluation program, but has not signed on to a specific bill yet.

© 2015 North Country Public Radio