LI school budgets up for votes today

Long Islanders have a chance Tuesday to vote on school budgets and board candidates amid the greatest financial challenges faced by the 124 districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties in 20 years.

Islandwide, districts are proposing a combined total of $10.8 billion in spending for the 2011-12 school year -- up 2.17 percent from this year.

Tax levies, the total revenue raised by local property taxes, would rise an average of 3.96 percent.

The difference between spending and taxes is mostly because of record cuts in state aid to schools, totaling $206 million. The reduction includes $89 million in federal jobs money that is not being renewed next year.

On the Island, school taxes account for more than 60 percent of property taxes. Those bills rank among the nation's highest.

In response to the funding crunch, districts' proposed budgets call for slashing a total of more than 2,000 jobs in the coming school year, including more than 1,200 teachers, Newsday found in its annual survey of spending and staffing plans. That would be the biggest wave of staff reductions since the early 1990s.

Albany lawmakers -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- contend cuts in aid were essential to balance the state's budget. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who pushed for the reductions, has added that most districts could compensate for lost aid by dipping into cash reserves.

The state's teachers union, New York State United Teachers, has responded that Albany should have extended an income-tax surcharge on upper-income residents instead of cutting aid.

With so much at stake, many civic activists have decried the fact that fewer than 20 percent of eligible voters typically turn out for school elections. Taxpayer representatives, however, note that school elections provide voters with limited influence over boards and budgets.