West Babylon District 'Discouraged' With Budget Defeat, Plans New Vote

WEST BABYLON, NY — After the West Babylon School District's proposed budget for 2024 to 2025 failed to pass by the 60 percent majority needed to pierce the cap, a new vote was scheduled for June 18, district officials told Patch.

The district was one of six on Long Island seeking to pierce the tax cap, and only one of two to see the budget defeated.

"The district is discouraged by the defeat of the proposed budget but respects the voice of the community. In the coming days, the district plans to present a revised budget for a revote on June 18," a representative from the superintendent's office told Patch.

When the votes were tallied,1,333 voted "yes" for the budget, with 1,028 "no votes," and 50.09 percent of the voters casting ballots to pass the budget.

The proposed $136,882,275 budget squashed Tuesday reflected a budget-to-budget increase of 5.774 percent from the current $129,410,664 and a tax levy increase of 4.99 percent.

The district can hold a new vote and propose either the same, or a revised, budget; if the vote fails a second time, the district will be forced to adopt a contingency budget and face program cuts.

While West Babylon and Sachem saw their budgets defeated, the four other districts where proposed budgets would pierce the cap—East Hampton, Springs, Amagansett and Port Washington—saw their budgets pass.

In the race for Board of Education, four candidates ran for three open seats.

Stephan Maucere received 1,387 votes, Anthony Raccomandato received 1,503 votes, incumbent John Evola received 1,349 votes and Shannon Camarda received 1,005 votes.

Maucere, Raccomandato and Evola have officially been elected as trustees and will serve as trustees for a three-year term.