State education leaders say school districts in small cities have been at a fiscal disadvantage for decades, and they're unified in pushing New York voters to approve a change to the state Constitution this Election Day that would increase their debt limit.
When early voting starts Saturday, New Yorkers need to flip the ballot over and vote on two proposed constitutional amendments. The first would remove the constitutional debt limit for small city school districts when borrowing money for educational purposes, including roof or infrastructure repairs, air filtration system work, security or technology upgrades and other projects.
"Proposition No. 1 will create a level playing field for our districts," state Council of School Superintendents Bob Lowry said in a statement Wednesday. "There is no special treatment, rather, small city school districts will be treated like the other 600-plus districts across the state and their students will benefit greatly."
Small cities in New York have 125,000 residents or fewer, such as Albany, Ithaca, Niagara Falls, Troy, Hudson, Batavia and the like.
School districts in those cities are capped at borrowing 5% of the property tax base when incurring debt — that's half of what the rest of the roughly 600 remaining suburban and rural school districts can borrow at 10%.
"It's an issue of equity," said Bob Breidenstein, executive director of the state Association of Small City School Districts. "The constitutional debt limit that small city districts have that is far more restrictive than other school districts throughout the state."
About 200,000 students attend one of the state's 57 districts in small cities. Roughly 62% of those students are economically disadvantaged and attend high-need school districts, and education advocates say the proposed change is long overdue to give those districts equal financial footing.
If voters approve the constitutional change to remove the debt limit, small city schools would be allowed to incur debt at 10% like other districts. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Wednesday to impose a 10% statutory debt limit on small city schools if the amendment passes Nov. 7.
Those questioning the proposal are worried about the fiscal effects on taxpayers.
Breidenstein says the change would not impact taxpayers, residents and students in other school districts.
"Small city districts will still need to execute exceptional governance and leadership, and make the decisions that are important and supported by their community," he said.
Breidenstein added posts on social media that claim increasing the debt limit for small city districts would increase school taxes across the state are misnomers.
Voters rejected a similar constitutional amendment on New York's ballot in 2003, but it failed with 54.2% rejecting the proposal. The reason is unclear, but analysis by the Albany law School Government Law Center points to a coordinated campaign at the time against continuing the debt limit.
Years back, the state Legislature set different budgetary policies for schools in suburban, rural and urban areas.
Schools in small cities could set their own budgets and authorize expenditures without voter approval until the law changed in the late '90s under former Gov. George Pataki, but the constitutional debt limit for small city schools stayed the same.
"This is why we really need this old constitutional debt limit to be fixed," NYS PTA Executive Director Kyle Belakopitsky said Wednesday. "Because we fixed the laws, but now we need to fix the rest."
Belakopitsky is among the group of educational advocates pushing for the constitutional amendment to pass.
It's backed by the NYS Educational Conference Board, which includes the state teachers' union, state School Boards Association and Council of School Superintendents.
They say disparity has left schools in small cities with less purchasing power.
"We all support it," Belakopitsky said. "We're hoping that the public will, too."