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Upstate school districts are showing more fiscal restraint than their downstate counterparts in proposed 2011-12 school budgets, according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The Empire Center’s 2011-12 School Budget Spotlight focuses on proposed tax and spending changes measured on a per-pupil basis for school districts that have submitted data 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 17. Some key trends revealed by the Empire Center report:

Spending per-pupil, excluding schools in the state’s five largest cities, will increase by 1.95 percent, reaching a statewide average of $20,401.

Districts north of the Mid-Hudson Region are holding proposed per-pupil spending below the projected inflation rate of 1.9 percent, while districts downstate are on average proposing spending hikes above inflation.

Per-pupil tax levies will increase by an average of 4.1 percent, more than twice the average spending increase, to a statewide average of $12,223. The faster increase in taxes indicates that districts have responded to a cut in state aid by shifting more costs to local taxpayers.

On a regional basis, the biggest proposed spending hikes are in Long Island, where the average per-pupil spending increase is 2.5 percent among the schools in the state sample. The Capital Region has the lowest increases, with proposed per-pupil spending hikes of 0.9 percent. Statewide, 298 districts, 45 percent of those reporting, proposed spending increases that exceed the inflation rate.

Average per-pupil tax increases ranged from a low of 3.2 percent in Finger Lakes to a high of 5.6 percent in Central New York. Over 78 percent of districts have proposed per-pupil tax levy increases that exceed the inflation rate. However, there were sharp differences within regions. For example, while school districts in Westchester County are proposing average tax hikes of 2 percent per pupil, the average increased is over 4 percent in nearby Rockland County. Proposed per-pupil tax hikes average 3.5 percent in Nassau County and 5 percent in Suffolk County.