ITHACA, N.Y. — After weeks of outcry about rising property tax bills, voters rejected the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) proposed budget by record-setting margins Tuesday, with only 29% voting in favor and 71% opposed.
Such margins are exceptionally rare — both regionally and statewide.
Of the school districts within Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES, no other budget proposal has seen such low popularity, according to an analysis of election results spanning the past 15 years.
Statewide, the last time any school budget was defeated more soundly than Ithaca’s was 2017, when only 12.6% of voters supported the budget for Hudson Valley’s long-ailing East Ramapo Central School District.
School board elections typically see relatively low voter turnout — on average, about 5% of the voting age population residing within ICSD’s borders have voted in the district’s yearly elections, according to analysis of census and state education data.
This year, 6,975 people cast ballots in ICSD elections — more than double the district’s 15 year average of 3,327.
Criticism of the budget and school district’s leadership hit a fever pitch in the weeks leading up to the election.
The budget included a proposed 8.4% increase to the tax levy, or the portion of the budget funded by tax dollars. The increased levy came amid increases in property assessments averaging 20% county-wide. This is also the third year in a row ICSD has increased its tax levy by more than 5%.
The Ithaca Voice spoke to several voters at poll locations Tuesday who said they had never before participated in school elections but were spurred to do so this year due to anger over rising school taxes.
ICSD is one of only 18 statewide to see its budget rejected out of the 671 districts across New York reporting election results, according to analysis by the New York State School Board Association. While only a handful of districts each year see their budgets fail, this year’s figure is the highest it’s been in 10 years.
Burgeoning expenses, the depletion of federal COVID-19 relief and lower-than-expected state education funding may have contributed to the shift. Fewer federal and state dollars often translate to a greater reliance on other sources of revenue, like local property taxes.
In another rare result, all three of ICSD’s ballot proposals failed, despite only one — the budget — directly impacting property taxes. Some said they voted down the other proposals, which dealt with the district’s capital projects and the purchase of low or no emission school buses, because they wished to send a stronger message to school district leadership.
Candidates’ stance on the budget and ICSD’s current leadership tended to have an outsized impact on their performance.
Traditionally, the endorsement of the Ithaca Teachers Association is one of the strongest factors in deciding who wins a seat on the board. That did not appear to be the case on Tuesday.
The top vote-getter, education policy analyst and doula Emily Workman, enjoyed support from both critics of the budget as well as the endorsement of the teachers’ union.
In the days leading up to the election, Workman appeared to align herself more closely with budget critics — a departure from the position of the teachers union. She ultimately did not disclose how she would vote.
Only one incumbent, psychologist Adam Krantweiss, won re-election. Krantweiss was one of several board members who worked to push through $4 million in last minute cuts to the district’s tax levy. Krantweiss also benefited from dual support from both the teachers union and budget critics.
Prominent Collegetown developer and landlord Todd Fox also won a seat on the council in a rare victory for budget hawks. Similar single issue, austerity-minded candidates have not performed well in Ithaca in recent years — fellow spending critic Joe Lonsky finished dead last during his 2023 bid for school board.
Fox’s platform was primarily focused on cutting district spending, particularly on capital projects. Fox’s company, Visum Development, is behind a bevy of student-oriented luxury apartment complexes worth some $300 million.
Two longtime incumbents, Moira Lang and Eldred Harris, had been outspoken in their support for the budget and the district’s performance in its pursuit of more equitable learning. Both lost their bids for reelection.
Harris is one of the board’s longest serving members, having first joined the board in 2009 pledging to reduce racial disparities in academic attainment. He has been one of the staunchest advocates for the district’s spending plans, at times going as far as to disparage critics of the budget. He received the lowest total votes of all seven candidates.