N.Y. voters approve $2 billion school tech bond

ALBANY – The state will borrow $2 billion to fund technology and facility upgrades in schools after voters decisively approved all three statewide ballot proposals Tuesday.

Sixty-two percent of voters supported the $2 billion Smart Schools Bond Act, which lets schools spend their cut on high-tech equipment or acquire or refurbish space for expanding prekindergarten programs.

Voters also backed two changes to the state constitution: One lets lawmakers receive bills electronically rather than have them printed, and the other alters the state's process for drawing congressional and state legislative lines every 10 years.

Public-school advocates were largely lukewarm to the education bond act, though New York State United Teachers supported it. Fiscal conservatives questioned whether bonds should be issued for high-tech products with a short lifespan. The state School Boards Association said Wednesday the vote showed support for "ramping up" technology in schools.

"The act will provide an extra resource for schools to expand classroom technology, school security and broadband access as well as create space for prekindergarten programs and replace portable classrooms," said David Albert, a spokesman for the association. "We're looking forward to working with state officials to ensure that participating school districts are reimbursed as expeditiously as possible."

About 57 percent backed the redistricting amendment, which will create a 10-member panel to draw district lines based on updated census figures each decade. The four state legislative leaders each will have two appointees on the committee, with the eight appointees then selecting another two members.

Previously, a panel of lawmakers and appointees essentially controlled by the parties in power drew congressional and state legislative district lines, a process that drew extensive criticism from good-government advocates for letting state legislators draw their own lines. In 2012, Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats controlled the process. Despite an outcry from minority-party legislators, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the lines into law in exchange for asking voters to change the process in future years.

The amendment split good-government groups with some, including Citizens Union and the League of Women Voters, saying it made progress toward taking the process out of the Legislature's hands.

"We are pleased that voters seized this once-in-a-50-year opportunity to fix our state's rigged redistricting process and end the practice of drawing districts to favor incumbents, protect majority party control, and discourage competition," the two groups wrote in a statement.

Others, like New York Public Interest Research Group and Common Cause/New York, thought it wouldn't make the process any more independent, especially considering lawmakers could make changes to the maps if they reject them twice.

"Now that New Yorkers have approved Prop 1, reformers will have to roll up their sleeves and begin the hard work necessary to make this seriously flawed new system work," NYPIRG legislative director Blair Horner said.

District lines won't be redrawn until 2022, based on 2020 census figures. Voters will have a chance to authorize a constitutional convention in 2017, which, if approved, could open the document — and potentially its redistricting provision — to further changes.

The electronic-bill proposal received support from 77 percent of voters. It had no widespread opposition from any advocacy groups. The approval alters the state constitution to allow for a vote on legislation if the bill is provided in electronic form to lawmakers at least three days beforehand. Previously, the constitution required bills to be printed and placed on all 213 legislators' desks.

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