Eighteen school districts sought to override the state’s property tax cap in yesterday’s school budget votes—the fewest attempts since the tax cap was enacted. Seven of those districts failed to win the 60 percent supermajority required to override the cap.
As we reported yesterday, when compared to both short- and long-term trends, the state’s property tax cap is making a difference. Data indicate that compared to the 30-year average, property owners have saved a total of $7.6 billion and tax levies since 2011 have risen by an average 2.2 percent—the lowest in any four-year period since 1982.
Some initial takeaways:
- all three North Country proposed overrides failed;
- no Capital Region school districts sought an override this year; and
- eleven of the 18 proposed overrides had a deciding margin of fewer than 100 votes.
Nearly half of the state’s school districts (excluding the big 5, which don’t hold budget votes) proposed levies that came within $1,000 of the cap, as we highlighted earlier this month in our School Budget Spotlight. Proposed budgets would increase per-pupil property tax levies by 2.1 percent, a slightly lower hike than last year’s 2.6 percent among proposed budgets.
Results of those seeking overrides are shown in the table below. Unofficial vote tallies are based on news accounts.
About the Author
You may also like
Four Problems with a Statewide Pied-à-Terre Tax
Soon after Governor Hochul floated the idea of a "pied-à-terre" tax in New York City, Albany Sen. Patricia Fahy proposed to expand the concept to the rest of the state.
As with H Read More
Albany Should Listen to Jamie Dimon
In his annual message to shareholders, JP Morgan Chase's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, offered a timely and pointed warning for New York policymakers.
It's worth , with emphasis add Read More
Mamdani Gets an Important Tax Fact Wrong
At a hearing in Albany last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani lobbied state lawmakers to help him balance the city's finances with a two-percentage-point hike in the city's income tax on people making over $1 million Read More
Budget Update Paints Less Alarming Picture of Federal Health Cuts
A new fiscal report from the state Budget Division suggests federal funding cuts will hit New York's health-care budget less severely than officials have previously warned.
A relea Read More
Parsing the Impact of Mamdani’s Tax Hike Plans
The front-running candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has said he can finance his costly campaign promises – including free buses and universal child care – by taxing only a sliver of the city's residents Read More
Why New York’s Health Premiums Keep Going Up
New Yorkers continue to face some of the costliest health premiums in the U.S., and the insurance industry's recently finalized rate applications shed light on why that is.
In summa Read More
How Immigrants Became a Cash Cow for New York’s Essential Plan
The Hochul administration's move to shrink the Essential Plan in response to federal budget cuts has exposed a surprising reality:
For the past decade, immigrants have been a cash c Read More
Corrected: As Math and Reading Proficiency Went Up, ‘Cut Scores’ Went Down
(Corrected on Aug. 27: The original version of this post inappropriately combined "scale scores" calculated by the Albany Times Union for the past three years with "cut scores" posted by the Education Read More