School Budget Vote Today: What Your Vote Means

M.C. Millman

A second budget vote for the East Ramapo Central School District's 2023-24 academic year is today, featuring a revised budget.

The initial budget was rejected with only 45 votes, as reported by Rockland Daily here, but revisions to the budget may help it pass this time. 

Next year's budget will be $295 million regardless, and property taxes will not go up regardless of the vote. Voting no will not lower the budget this time. The vote is only on what the tax levy will be, not what the budget will be. The tax levy is the total amount to be collected from the taxpayers for use by the school district. It has nothing to do with what individuals pay. In the budget that's being presented, the tax levy is 0%, so no matter which way the vote goes, it's still going to be 0%. 

The $295 million spending plan was cut by around three million dollars, allowing for a zero percent school tax levy. While the new budget is still higher than last year, there are more taxpayers to share the burden. 

Harry Grossman, ERCSD school board member, explains that this means residents will pay less in school taxes this year as the ERCSD now has more properties and more assessed value. 

If the tax levy is 0%, which means it stays constant, but the number of properties increases, each property's share of that tax levy is smaller, and that's how taxes go down. According to a recent "Journal News" article, approval of this budget will give Ramapo taxpayers a dip in school taxes by about 1.4%, Clarkstown homeowners' school tax bills could drop by 9.2%, and Haverstraw homeowners could experience a nearly 5.5% school tax decrease.  

For more information on the intricacies of the new budget, see the Rockland Daily article here. 

If the budget fails to pass for the second time, the school district will be forced to comply with a contingency budget with many restrictions to services. 

Notably, the limits of a contingency budget would prevent the outside use of school buildings and grounds, which are used for religious summer camps.

Unlike the Suffern Central School District, where many private school parents have to drive their children to school and school taxes are astronomical, East Ramapo provides equitable transportation for public and private schools, and school taxes are lower.

"East Ramapo is the only district that provides 178 days of busing to non-public children, the same as public school children and specified in the law," Grossman shares. "The number of children in the public school system has grown by over 1,000 this year, and the number of children in the non-public school system has grown by almost 2,000. The cost and needs for running the district keep growing, and still, the district was able to present a budget that cuts homeowner's taxes."

The East Ramapo Central School District shared in their budget newsletter, "On behalf of the Board of Education and the administration, we recognize the efforts of our community and look forward to all eligible community members exercising their right to vote on June 20."

Registered voters are encouraged to go out to vote and encourage friends and family to go out and vote as well.  Visit here to find out where your polling center is.