Download: Complete Bulletin. PDF file.

On May 16th, school districts across the state submitted their budgets for a public vote. Overall, the vast majority of those budgets were approved. According to the State Education Department, 602 school districts had their budget approved and 77 districts had their budget defeated – an 88.7% approval rate. This 88.7% approval rate is above last year's approval rate of 83.5%, and the 84.9% approval rate in 2004.

One factor that contributed to the increase in the overall approval rate was that this year Long Island school districts had a much higher approval rate – 84%, compared with just 63% in 2005 and 62% in 2004. The budget voting success on Long Island was attributable to a surge in the number of "Yes" votes – a 37% increase compared to 2004.

Districts with a defeated budget may resubmit the same budget to the voters, resubmit a revised budget to the voters, or adopt a contingency budget. If a second budget proposal is defeated, the district must adopt a contingency budget. Spending increases under a contingency budget are capped at 4.00 percent over last year's level. If a school district chooses to have a budget revote, it must occur on June 20 th. This is the first year that all budget revotes must occur on the same day – the third Tuesday in June.

The complete bulletin, available here for download, provides a listing of those districts that had their budget defeated.

Download: Complete Bulletin. PDF file.