Today, local voters living in communities outside the City of Buffalo will cast their

ballots on school district budgets, which have been hit hard by massive cuts in state aid.

As schools have sought to soften the blow to taxpayers, many districts have resorted to

measures that might have been unthinkable in better days.

Related: District-by-district preview of votes

Among them:

Some schools will be closed in Lancaster, Lockport, Lake Shore and North Tonawanda

— the result of declining enrollment coupled with tight finances.

Varsity and junior varsity football will be eliminated in Royalton-Hartland, a small

eastern Niagara County district. All modified sports also were dropped in next year's budget.

Some school superintendents, including those in the Lancaster and Kenmore-Town of

Tonawanda districts, gave back their raises for the coming year, in a symbolic gesture they

hoped would inspire other employees.

And hundreds of employees stand to lose their jobs in schools throughout the region.

By and large, districts succeeded in containing spending this year, compared with recent

years. The average budget increase in Erie County was just over 1 percent, compared with the

current year's spending; in Niagara County, spending actually dropped by an average of 1.4

percent.

But spending cuts — even when paired with hefty draws from districts' reserve funds

— still could not stave off substantial increases in the tax levy in many localities.

Educators are hoping that voters will be sympathetic to the schools' plight.

"I think there is a willingness to judge a budget in terms of how forthcoming the

administration and board have been with their plan and the fact they have made a good-faith

effort to reduce the budget without impairing basic quality," said Donald A. Ogilvie,

superintendent of Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

The districts in line for the worst hits in state aid — which often translates to the

biggest tax increases — include rural districts and struggling first-ring suburban

districts, where the commercial or industrial tax base has eroded.

"The irony in all of this is that the school districts that are most dependent on state aid

— because they are dependent on state aid and didn't get it — are having some of

the greatest difficulties because their tax base has never been relied upon to the same extent

of other districts," Ogilvie said.

Maryvale residents will see the biggest proposed increase in the total amount to be raised

in taxes. The small district in Cheektowaga will see both the tax levy and the tax rate go up

by more than 11 percent, despite a 2.2 percent cut in spending.

Sweet Home taxpayers barely escaped a double-digit tax increase. In their district, the

total amount to be raised in taxes is projected to increase by 9.9 percent; tax rates will go

up a bit less, at 8.4 percent.

The biggest proposed tax rate increase is in Holland, where taxpayers will consider a

budget that cuts spending more than 4 percent — but raises tax rates by 13 percent.

The picture is much the same across the state.

Robert N. Lowry Jr., deputy director of the New York State Council of School

Superintendents, said schools did try to control spending, which increased by an average of

1.4 percent this year, compared with 2.3 percent last year, for districts outside the large

cities.

The average proposed tax levy for the state's 700 districts is projected to increase by 3.2

percent, up from 2.1 percent last year.

But that is based on an anticipation — schools don't really know since the 2010 state

budget has yet to be passed — that the state will lower its aid to public schools by 5.1

percent, compared with a 1.9 percent increase last year, Lowry said.

Last year, a record-setting 97.3 percent of school budgets statewide were approved in the

May voting. That seems unlikely to happen again this year, many observers say.

"School leaders made strenuous efforts to hold down costs, but there is a concern around

the state about what will happen [today]. We don't expect another record pass rate," Lowry

said, adding that he hopes voters recognize that the loss of so much state aid is forcing

schools to rely more on payers of property tax.

Gov. David A. Paterson said Monday that schools should not be too confident about their

budgets, given the anger level of the public.

"People will be very surprised when the public, not the Legislature, not the governor, but

the public, votes down a lot of those plans, saying "spend less money,' saying "you can't

spend money you don't have,' saying that "it's time for us to make the tough decisions to get

out of this recession and get back to prosperity,' " Paterson told reporters in Manhattan.

If a school budget is voted down, a district has two choices: have a second vote on the

third Tuesday in June or proceed to a contingency budget. If a second vote is held and the

budget is defeated, the contingency budget automatically takes effect.

Spending rate increases are dictated by state law and based on an inflation rate; this

year, districts going the contingency route would have to adopt a plan with no spending

increase.

As the state's big teachers unions began a mass mailing into the districts of state

senators who have supported Paterson's call for a $1.4 billion cut in education, Assembly

Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, was more optimistic than the governor about tuetoday's

school voting.

"They're concerned about educating their children, and they will act accordingly," Silver

said of voters. "I'm sure the school districts have presented budgets that fit their

communities. I would say that most of them will pass."