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GUIDE: Two statewide proposals on the 2023 ballot

The topics include schools and sewers.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Early voting is underway with more than 15,000 people voting already in Erie County.  

When you vote, you will see two statewide questions to answer on your ballot. One has to do with school districts and the other with sewage facilities. 

In both cases, you're asked if the proposed constitutional amendment should be approved, and you can vote yes or no.

Proposal 1 has to do with small city school districts. That includes cities with fewer than 125-thousand people that have their own school districts, like Niagara Falls.

Proposal 1 would amend the state constitution to remove the special constitutional debt limitation on small city school districts so they would be treated the same as all other school districts. A yes vote approves the change. A no-vote opposes it.

Right now, the state constitution allows most districts to borrow up to 10% of the total value of taxable property in their municipality, while small cities are limited to 5%.

"So really what it would do is it would put the small city-operated school districts on the same plane as the other school districts in the State of New York. So it wouldn't necessarily be giving them anything special that maybe, like, the Williamsville School District or the City of Buffalo doesn't already have the ability to borrow that amount of money," said Shawn Donahue, Clinical Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University at Buffalo.

Proposal 2 has to do with sewers and the debt limits in the state constitution to build and fix them. And again, a yes vote approves the proposal. A no-vote opposes it.

UB Clinical Assistant Professor of Political Science Shawn Donahue says this is up for renewal every 10 years.

"This is something that most of us who live in a city or town are using on a daily basis. And whenever there are repairs and other projects, they can get expensive pretty quickly. So, as you said, if the voters pass this, it basically will renew it up until 2034. Right now, basically what it is, is that there's a carve-out for the amount of debt that municipalities can take on for sewer projects out there, so it won't count against their debt limit if they have currently the approval of the state comptroller's office," said Shawn Donahue.

If you live in Erie County, you can look up your sample ballot here.

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