Elmont school budget, which needed supermajority, fails to get it; Sewanhaka passes

Elmont School District

The Elmont School District proposed a $78.6 million budget. The budget calls for a 6.9 percent tax-levy increase, which exceeds the state tax-levy cap of 1.9 percent and, therefore, required a 60 percent or higher approval by voters. They did not get it. Although 56.7 percent of voters said “yes” to the spending plan, it did not reach supermajority, which means the proposed budget failed. The vote was 1,226 in favor to 937 against.

Now, the district has three options: It can hold another vote on the same budget and try to get more than 60 percent, it can propose a budget with $2.5 million in cuts so that the tax levy falls below the state limit, requiring only a 50-percent-plus-one approval, or it can forgo another vote by adopting a contingency budget, which requires cutting $3.4 million from the budget.

There was no word from officials Tuesday night about which of the options it would choose.

Franklin Square School District

Franklin Square School District proposed that voters approve a $34.4 million budget, which is a 1.5 percent increase over the current budget. The maximum allowable tax levy increase under current law for Franklin Square is 2.11 percent. The district came in below that at 2 percent. Residents approved the budget with a vote of 978 in favor to 522 opposed, or by 65.2 percent to 34.8 percent.

Sewanhaka Central High School District

Sewanhaka proposed a $167 million budget. That’s a 2.9 percent increase over the current budget, and calls for a tax levy increase of 2.26 percent, which is barely below the state cap for Sewanhaka of 2.28 percent, and so required only a simple majority approval by voters. Residents approved the budget by a vote of 58.9 percent for and 41.1 percent against, or 4,178 for and 2,919 against.