There are two propositions on the ballot this Election Day.

Proposition No. 1 will level the playing field for districts across the state.

If passed, it would remove the constitutional debt limit for small city school districts when borrowing money for educational purposes. This covers projects like roof or infrastructure repairs, air filtration systems and security or technology upgrades. 

This change, however, would not impact taxpayers, residents and students in other school districts.

Here's why it's important for small cities like Albany, Ithaca, Niagara Falls, Troy, Hudson and Batavia: They are capped at borrowing 5% of the property tax base when incurring debt.

The roughly 600 other suburban and rural school districts across the state can borrow 10%. This puts these districts at a disadvantage and the students in them.

"This is specifically to give the 57 small city districts the fiscal tools that everyone else in the state has had," Bob Breidenstein, executive director of the state Association of Small City School Districts. "Small city districts will be able to have the same purchasing power. And if you look at a typical school district that has the 10% statutory limit on their debt, when you go dollar for dollar and pound for pound on resources, the suburban and rural school districts can oftentimes purchase three times more."

Gov. Kathy Hochul already signed legislation to impose a 10% statutory debt limit on small city schools if the amendment passes. Voters rejected a similar constitutional amendment on New York's ballot in 2003.

On Proposition No. 2, voters will decide how to handle the debt of sewage facilities. It determines whether counties, towns and villages can have a 10-year extension to remove construction and repairs of sewage facilities from their constitutional debt limits.

However, the wording of the proposition could confuse voters.

When it comes to vital infrastructure for communities, many aren’t concerned about them until things aren’t working right. Someone who is passionate about sewage treatment and infrastructure all the time is Shannon Harty, the commissioner of the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection.

She compares the issue to a consumer debt-to-income ratio when they’re shopping for a mortgage, and she recalls the history behind the proposition to help explain it all.

“This dates all the way back to the 60s when the Clean Water Act was around," said Harty. "And what a lot of people don’t realize is that a lot of this infrastructure didn’t even exist until the clean water was adopted. So the Clean Water Act drove the construction. A lot of this sewer and water infrastructure — a lot of it is now 50 years old. It is at the end of its useful life and we’re all facing major capital upgrades. So we need this debt exclusion extended for another 10 years. It isn’t anything new. It’s been on the books for a long time. But we need it to continue now more than ever.”

Harty adds if these upgrades are not included in the government's debt-to-income ratio, it allows local municipalities to take the debt for sewer infrastructure investments and take it off of that amount so that they can preserve that borrowing power for other things, such as roads and bridges and buildings.

Wastewater treatment is very expensive. It could consume the borrowing power of a small town or a village with an upgrade or repair that might be financially devastating.

Harty says for a large municipality, the magnitude of that kind of borrowing can push them up against their debt limit and drastically impact their ability to borrow money. The more expensive it is to borrow, the more expensive it is for taxpayers.

So utility leaders like Commissioner Harty are asking for a yes vote on this proposition. The Conservative Party is asking for a no vote on both propositions. They say there is no cap on spending with the debt limit left to the legislature and it exceeds the long-term benefits and will, "place additional financial burdens on New York taxpayers."

A yes vote means you support allowing municipalities to leave out their debt limit indebtedness for the construction or reconstruction of sewage facilities for 10 years. A no vote means you oppose allowing municipalities to leave out construction or repairs of sewage facilities from their constitutional debt limits for 10 years.

The choice for these propositions is on the back of your ballot.