Once again, the vast majority of school districts this year are submitting budgets to voters that are within the state's cap on property tax increases. 

But for your tax bill, or your child's education, how much will that document be worth a month from now? Or when students begin the school year again in September?

What You Need To Know


  • Voters decide next week on new school budgets.

  • Many school districts face uncertatiny heading into new school year.

  • School districts are budgeting within in the cap this year.

  • New York has some of the highest property taxes in the country.

Schools in New York face deep uncertainty stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. It's not yet clear if students will return to the classroom in September, though school districts are being asked now to devise social distancing and sanitary guidelines in case they do. 

And, compounding the complications, is the potential ax being taken to spending if federal aid is not made available to New York. 

A review by the Association of School Business Officials of New York released Wednesday found 98 percent of school districts will put before voters spending plans that are within the cap, set at 2.2 percent this year. Only 15 school districts out of more than 800 are submitting budgets asking voters to bust through the cap.

"School districts designed their 2020-21 budgets in a climate of great fiscal challenge and uncertainty about what education in the 2020-21 school year will look like," the analysis found. "At the same time that schools are stepping up to provide meals to students and their families, coordinate childcare for essential workers, and develop online learning strategies, the state is considering enormous mid-year aid cuts."

Foundation aid at the state level has been frozen and mid-year budget cuts are possible. 

"In recent years, voters have approved 99 to 100 percent of budgets in either the May or June budget votes," the report found. "With only one scheduled vote this year, districts whose budgets that are defeated in the June 9 vote will likely have to adopt incredibly punitive contingency budgets, which result in much deeper cuts and long-term financial and educational harm."

New York's tax cap has been in effect since 2012, limiting levy increases to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.