It's that time of year.

Voters are casting their ballots on school budgets.

Action News Reporter Jessica Light shows us why controversy draws more people to the polls.

Joe DiMaschio always votes yes when it comes to school budgets.

But this year the Chenango Valley school district is dealing with a 3- million dollar deficit.

Its proposing a 14 point 4 percent tax levy increase to fill that gap.

And that has DiMaschio thinking twice.

He says "In actuality I'll decide when I get in there but I'm very unhappy with the situation. Its frustrating and uncomfortable."

"This thing's an absolute robbery. Its negligence, its irresponsible and somebody should be made answerable to this thing. And these people are just laughing at us saying that no matter if you turn it down or not you're going to pay." says Bob Mion of Hillcrest.

That's because the district's contingency budget only brings the tax levy down a little more than 2 percent.

While CV's polling place was packed with people, other school districts didn't see as much traffic.

"Sometimes in a time where there is not large controversy, where the people in general believes in the budget there's a tendency not to go out and vote. And that can have some backlash and some negative effects because invariably the no voters will tend to show up." says Alan Buyck, Broome Tioga BOCES Deputy Superintendent.

And a failed budget means school districts will have to make hard decisions about where to cut spending.

DiMaschio says "The only ones that are going to suffer out of that situation are the kids."

In Town of Fenton, Jessica Light, WBNG-TV Action News.


We'll have school budget voting results from around the area, tonight, on Action News at 11.