Two small city school district superintendents in Orange County told The Epoch Times that they support a statewide ballot measure this fall to lift the debt ceiling on their districts to the same level as other districts in the state.
A small city school district is defined as one that contains at least part of a city with a population of less than 125,000; they’re subject to a 5 percent debt ceiling under the state constitution.
“This proposed change would level the playing field for small city schools by putting in place the same borrowing guidelines as large city, suburban, and rural school districts,” Enlarged City School District of Middletown Superintendent Amy Creeden told The Epoch Times. “It would enable them to complete needed improvement projects with more efficiency.”
A “yes” vote on this ballot measure wouldn’t result in any tax increases for residents, she said.
“This is about making the rules the same for everybody,” Port Jervis City School District Superintendent John Bell told The Epoch Times. “It is not like there are schools out there dying to borrow more money; it is all about making it fair for everybody.”
Most school district debts are incurred to finance construction projects, and a healthy debt ratio would vary district by district even as they’re subject to similar debt ceilings under the law, he said.
When Mr. Bell was the superintendent at the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, the district at one time borrowed a significant amount of money to construct new buildings to meet the enrollment growth and then paid the debts down after things calmed down. Now as superintendent of the Port Jervis City School District—a relatively poorer district—Mr. Bell has worked to keep the debt ratio low by relying on generous state aid to finance the ongoing renovations on aging campus facilities, he said.
Robert Breidenstein, executive director of the Small City School District Association, agreed. The association has advocated for the removal of the constitutional debt limit since the 1980s.
“It is important for people to know that this doesn’t eliminate the responsible fiscal planning of small city school districts,” he told The Epoch Times. “It simply creates for them the same platform that the 600-plus other school districts in the state operate under.”
There are 57 small city school districts, with a total enrollment of about 200,000 students, in New York; Orange County has three such districts in the Port Jervis, Middletown, and Newburgh areas.
Mr. Breidenstein said that regulation discrepancies between small city school districts and others date back more than 50 years. Since the 1980s, those gaps in the budget, finance, voting, and tax levy have been gradually resolved, leaving the constitutional debt limit as the last remaining one.
Challenges to amend the debt ceiling include getting buy-ins on the issue from influential statewide advocacy groups and the complicated process of amending the state constitution, which requires two consecutive approvals from the state legislature before an amendment can be put on a statewide ballot.
“This time around, we received support from advocacy groups, the state legislature, and the executive branch, which recognized that we had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to right a wrong about small city school districts and give them an equal footing,” Mr. Breidenstein said.
The other statewide ballot measure this fall would extend for another 10 years the removal of sewage facility financing from debt limit considerations for local municipalities.
Ahead of the Nov. 7 general election, voters can cast their ballots early at eight sites throughout Orange County between Oct. 28 and Nov. 5. Information about site locations and times can be found on the county’s website.
