Southern Tier School Budget Plans Sail Through at the Polls
All the school districts in the Southern Tier are moving ahead with their plans for spending in the next school year.
In state-wide school budget voting, residents locally approved their district budget proposals and other propositions for funding the purchase of school buses and capital projects.
Going into the vote, the districts had all proposed spending plans that kept the tax levy within the New York State maximum cap.
In Vestal, however, there had been a push-back against the planned tax increase given the district was maintaining a multi-million dollar fund balance. In the end, the majority of the voters sided with the district’s assertion that the fund balance was needed in order to be prepared for spending in an emergency.
The Owego Apalachin School District, meanwhile, asked voters for the go-head to set up a Capital Reserve Fund. That proposition passed 522 to 189.
Some districts like Owego Apalachin and Chenango Valley asked voters to approve funding for public libraries.