Schools and sewers: what to know about New York’s 2023 ballot proposals

Over the last decade, New York state voters have been asked whether to approve ballot proposals that would allow private casinos (approved), create a mail-in voting system (rejected) and borrow billions of dollars to combat climate change (approved).

This year, those same voters will be asked a pair of ballot questions that are … not quite as sexy.

On Election Day and during early voting, voters across New York weigh in on limits for local governments and schools who borrow money — though perhaps not their local governments and schools. Despite one of those proposals only applying to school districts in 57 small cities, voters across the Empire State, including those in New York City, will determine their fate.

One of the proposals is the latest step in a decadeslong quest by smaller school districts to achieve parity with most other districts in the state. The other is a routine, once-a-decade extension focused on sewage treatment facilities.

Here’s what you need to know about the two statewide proposals on your ballot this year.

Proposal 1: Changing the debt limit for small-city schools

Proposal 1 applies specifically to small-city school districts — which includes any city with fewer than 125,000 people, such as White Plains, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, Newburgh and a few dozen others.

As it stands, the state constitution says those districts have a debt limit — the maximum amount they can borrow — that is equal to 5% of the total value of taxable property in their city. So, if a city has $100 million worth of property on its tax rolls, its debt limit is $5 million that can be used to update schools buildings and make other repairs.

That’s half the debt limit of most school districts in New York state, which can borrow up to 10%. Their limit is set by state law, not the constitution.

If voters approve Proposal 1, that 5% debt limit would be eliminated for small-city districts. Instead, they would revert to the 10% limit most other districts have under state law.

Proposal 2: Extending an exception for sewage facility projects

This proposal also has to do with the local debt limits in the state constitution.

Under the current constitution, every city, town, village and county in New York has a limit on the amount of debt it can take out — anywhere from 7% to 10% of the value of the property on their tax rolls.

But, the constitution includes a key carveout for sewage treatment facilities.

Basically, if a city has to borrow to repair a sewage treatment plant or even build a new one, that doesn't count against their debt limit — so long as they get approval from the state comptroller.

Once every 10 years, New York asks voters whether they want to extend that carveout for sewage plants. This year, voters will be asked to extend it through 2034.

My eyes just glazed over. Can you put it in practical terms?

Robert Breidenstein is the longtime executive director of the New York State Association of Small City School Districts, which has been pushing for versions of Proposal 1 for decades, a version of which failed in 2003.

He put it like this: School districts have to borrow money to upgrade or repair their buildings, equipment and infrastructure. If there’s a small-city district that has to, say, modernize their school buildings, they run up against that smaller debt ceiling very quickly — and have to do their projects piecemeal, which often adds to the construction cost over time.

"Instead of doing roofs and security and technology upgrades, maybe they'll just do the roofs this project and delay [everything else] until the next project,” Breidenstein said.

That said, there is a way for small city districts to get around that limit — they have to get 60% of the voters in their district to approve the workaround, and also get approval from the state. But that can be a tough sell, and a lot of districts don't even try because they don't want to risk having their entire project rejected.

For Proposal 2, local government officials say the idea behind it is simple: Sewage treatment plants are hugely important, and you wouldn’t want to hamstring local governments from getting them fixed.

“The sewer debt exclusion from New York's constitutional debt limit was established, subject to voter approval every 10 years, as a way to ensure that the debt limit does not stop local governments from undertaking capital improvements critical to protecting public health, safety and welfare,” said Peter Baynes, executive director of the New York Conference of Mayors.

If Proposal 1 only has to do with small cities, why does NYC get a say?

That’s because it requires a change to the state constitution. Anytime there’s a proposed constitutional amendment, it requires a vote of the whole state.

The 5% debt limit for small-city school districts dates back to the 1950s, back when they were under the control of their local municipal government and their budgets weren’t subject to a district-wide vote. That’s no longer the case, but that smaller debt limit has remained — in large part because voters shot down the effort to change it 20 years ago.

Brian Fessler, director of government relations for the New York State School Boards Association, acknowledged the difficulty of getting voters in some areas of the state to pay attention to the ballot proposal. But he said his message is simple: This is about equity.

"If you are supportive of education, like the vast majority of the residents in the state are, then this is an issue of providing equity for school districts all across the state,” he said.

Is there any opposition to either of these proposals?

So far, there doesn’t appear to be any organized opposition — at least in terms of any groups or organizations backing a campaign intended to defeat them.

The state Republican Party hasn’t taken a public position. The Empire Center, an Albany-based think tank that closely monitors state fiscal policy, similarly hasn’t raised any red flags.

But the school groups pushing Proposal 1 aren’t taking any chances. They saw the proposal go down 20 years ago, and Fessler acknowledged some voters often have a visceral reaction any time they see the word “debt.”

“We are trying [the] best we can to explain that this is not about doing anything to increase debt necessarily at all, because it doesn’t require anything like that,” Fessler said. “But it is about providing that equity.”

When can I vote on these proposals?

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 7. The early voting period begins Oct. 28 and ends Nov. 5.

New York City residents can find their polling site and see a sample ballot at vote.nyc. Outside New York City, check with your county board of elections.