Voters across New York will be asked to amend the state Constitution, Section 4 of Article VIII, to eliminate the limit on how much debt small districts can build through borrowing. The state Constitution defines a small school district as a district partly or fully within a city with less than 125,000 inhabitants.
The amendment states no county, city, town or village shall be allowed to contract any indebtedness for any purpose or in any manner which, including existing indebtedness, shall exceed an amount equal to the following percentages of the average full valuation of taxable real estate of such county, city, town or village:
a. 10% for the county of Nassau, for county purposes
b. 7% for any county, other than the county of Nassau, for county purposes
c. 10% for the city of New York, for city purposes
d. 9% for any city, other than the city of New York, having 125,000 or more inhabitants according to the latest federal census, for city purposes
e. 7% for any city having less than 125,000 inhabitants according to the latest federal census, for city purposes
f. 7% for any town, for town purposes; and
g. 7% for any village for village purposes
A “yes” vote supports the amendment to eliminate the constitutional debt limit for the districts while a “no” vote keeps the constitutional debt limit and can only be surpassed if 60% of voters in the district approve a measure to do so.
