NEW SCOTLAND — Voorheesville’s annual done-deal budget vote was true to form on Tuesday as district residents overwhelmingly approved a $34.5 million budget for the 2025-26 school year.

With 587 ballots cast, 415 were in favor of the spending plan for next year while 172 residents were against it, or about 71 percent to 29 percent.

With incumbent school board members Rob Samson, 414 votes, and Barbara Owens, 438 votes, unopposed in their respective bids for a sixth and third four-year term, turnout was 70 percent of what it was last year, when over 850 votes were cast to elect new board members Kathy Fiero and Matt Bergerson and jettison incumbent Timothy Kremer. 

Though this year’s count was higher than those of earlier competition-less elections, as in 2021 when two incumbents were unopposed and just 493 ballots were cast. Or 2018, which saw 655 voters cast ballots; or 2017, when just over 500 voted; or in 2016, when 966 voted; or the 766 who voted in 2015; or 2014, when 590 ballots were cast.

Voters, by a 442-to-135 margin, also approved the purchase of two 72-passenger diesel buses for next year, at a cost of $371,000; state aid will cover close to two-thirds of the cost. Voters also approved by a similar margin a proposition to create a reserve fund dedicated to the future purchase of school buses, vehicles, and transportation-related equipment

The district’s now-adopted $34.5 million spending plan for next year includes a nearly 6-percent increase in the tax levy, almost the maximum allowed by the state, 6.4 percent. And, with Voorheesville reluctant to cut personnel or programming, the school district is using fund balance to fill the gap. 

The district has gone out of its way to say the almost 6-percent increase in the levy won’t necessarily equate to a 6-percent bump in property taxes, but never offered an actual figure for the hit property owners’ tax bills will take next year.

This year, after the application of the equalization rate, property owners in the three municipalities making up the district — New Scotland, Guilderland, and Berne — pay school taxes of about $15 per $1,000 of assessed value. 

Also passing with ease on Tuesday was the Voorheesville Public Library’s $1.37 million budget for next year, which voters approved 457 to 126. Sarah Brunt, who was uncontested in her bid for a now-three-year term as library trustee, received 496 votes.

The library’s budget for next year is under the state-set cap by about $26,300, 

Tax rates for property owners in the towns of New Scotland, Guilderland, and Berne will increase by a few pennies per $1,000 of assessed value, depending on the municipality: New Scotland residents’ library tax rate will increase from $1.32 per $1,000 of assessed value to $1.35; in Guilderland, the rate will stay flat at $1.15 per $1,000; and in Berne, residents’ tax rate will increase from $2.28 per $1,000 of assessed to $2.29 per, according to the library.

In terms of real dollars, a home in the district with an assessed value of $300,000 will pay about $12 more in property taxes next year if it’s located in New Scotland; $9 more in Guilderland; and $21 more in Berne.