School districts will conduct their first all-mail budget votes in less than two weeks, and a major question remains unanswered: What happens if a budget is defeated?
On May 1, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order that scheduled public votes on proposed school budgets for June 9 and ordered that they be conducted by absentee ballots only.
In normal years, if voters reject a school board's budget proposal in May, the board can hold a second vote in June before the school district must adopt a contingency budget.
Under a contingency budget, a district cannot increase its property tax levy from the previous year, and usually must make large spending cuts to offset the loss in revenue.
But Cuomo’s executive order makes no mention of revotes. Statewide advocacy groups say they have not received further guidance on the issue, leaving districts at a loss.
Many districts are assuming that second votes won't be possible. Even if they are allowed a second vote, they won't have the time — or perhaps the money — to coordinate another all-mail vote before the school year ends on June 30.
“As it stands right now, we don't see any legal, practical way for districts to conduct a second vote this year,” said Bob Lowry, deputy director of communications for the New York State Council of School Superintendents.
“I'm not aware of any law firm working with school districts that has a different interpretation.”
Can there be a revote?
Nothing in the executive order prohibits revotes, said Jay Worona, deputy executive director and general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association.
But the time frame would make it difficult, if not impossible, for districts to meet the legal notification requirements for a second vote.
Some districts have considered sending out notice of a second vote even before the first vote, Worona said, "to be in conformity with notification requirements, if they needed to go to revote.”
Neither Cuomo’s office nor the state Education Department responded to a request for comment.
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Why are schools holding mail-in elections?
School elections had been scheduled for May 19 before Cuomo canceled them due the coronavirus pandemic.
Since he set the June 9 date, school districts have had to race to figure out how to print and mail thousands of ballots — complete with return envelopes bearing pre-paid postage.
Now it appears that districts will be deprived of a second shot at passing a budget without Cuomo or anyone in Albany addressing the issue or its ramifications.
“In talking to my colleagues, most of them seem to be resigned that whatever the result of this is what they're going to have to live with, which is not the way it's supposed to be,” Lakeland schools Superintendent George Stone said.
As he spoke, Lakeland’s first ballots were supposed to have been mailed but were still at the printer’s due to a backlog.
A contingency budget would be a hard pill for many districts to swallow, especially when Cuomo is warning that he may cut state aid to districts by 20% and districts face many uncertain costs related to the possible reopening of schools with social distancing requirements.
If a district's budget plan is rejected by voters, the amount of spending it would have to cut in a contingency budget would depend on how much it was planning to increase the tax levy — the amount of money raised from property taxes.
Many districts have emphasized what they would have to cut in their budget newsletters, so that voters understand what's at stake if they vote no.
What a contingency budget would mean for schools?
In Peekskill, going to a contingency budget would mean cutting over $840,000 from a $98 million budget. In Bedford, the loss would be $2.3 million from a $139 million budget. In White Plains, it would mean slicing $5.5 million from a $233 million budget.
A contingency budget only funds salaries and “ordinary contingent expenses” that are legally obligated or necessary to maintain education, safety and property.
Contingency budgets generally do not allow for the purchase of new equipment, nonessential maintenance, capital expenditures or any public use of school property that would bring costs.
Tom Corbia, president of the Port Chester Board of Education, said a contingency budget would be “devastating” for the district.
“We'll see how the voting goes,” Lowry said. “Say there's an exceptionally high number of districts whose [budgets] don't go through. Does that lead to some consideration for authorizing a second vote? Perhaps that's a possibility.”
Right now, many districts are assuming they will only get one chance to pass a budget at the end of what has been a most challenging spring.
“A contingency budget is really going to mean significant changes for districts in the way they operate, as if that hasn’t been changed enough.” Stone said.
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Sophie Grosserode covers education. Click here for her latest stories. Follow her on Twitter @sdgrosserode. Check out our latest subscription offers here.
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