The Southern Cayuga Central School District finally has its 2008-2009 budget.

Voters approved the district's revised budget Tuesday 518-352. The vote comes almost one month after the original proposal was defeated by 35 votes.

The new budget includes slightly less spending and a lower tax levy increase compared to its predecessor. However, it still increases spending by 2.9 percent, at $16,373,330, and calls for an estimated 4.47 percent increase in the tax levy over the 2007-2008 budget.

“Clearly people came out to support the school district,” Superintendent Mary Kay Worth said Tuesday night.

After the original budget was defeated on May 20, school officials opted to revise the proposal for a second vote instead of immediately adopting a contingency budget.

The original budget proposal called for $16,448,192 in spending, which was an increase of 3.37 percent.

The budget also called for an estimated 5.24 percent tax levy increase.

Worth said district officials and the school board made a major effort to get information to the public about the updated proposal before Tuesday's vote.

“We really worked exceptionally hard to communicate the information so the people could make a decision responsibly,” Worth said. “This community has a history of a strong political voice.”

Some of the revisions include:

• Previously unknown funds to be paid back to the state Department of Education for building projects dating to 2002.

• Added state funds totaling $150,000.

• Restoration of a music position from part-time to full-time.

• Reduction of funds for athletics totaling $40,000, which is a $20,000 more of a reduction than the first budget.

• Elimination of summer enrichment program for kindergarten through fifth grade.

• Requirement for all students taking driver's education to pay for the course.

The revised budget keeps a school resource officer on staff. The officer will be paid $57,000 a year for five years, according to a contract approved Monday by the school board.

The new budget also retains two nurses at the middle school and high school.

Had the budget failed a second time, the district would have adopted the contingency budget, which called for $16,437,429 in spending and an estimated 5.47 percent increase in the tax levy.

Genoa resident William Schmitt was one of the voters who helped push the budget through. Schmitt showed up to the polling location at the planetarium just before 2 p.m. with the intent of voting to approve the budget.

He said he also voted to approve the budget the first time and was “a little surprised” when it didn't pass. He said Tuesday that he showed up to support the schools.

“But now, it would be stupid not to vote for (the budget), because it would cost even more,” Schmitt said.

Dorothy Lonsky, of Venice, disagreed. Lonsky had voted against the district's budget in May, and she said Tuesday that she also voted to reject the revised budget.

Lonsky said she was “intrigued” by what the contingency budget would entail, and that she had nothing against the administration. However, she thinks $16.5 million a year is excessive to teach approximately 800 students, she said.

“People are saying enough already, that we just can't do it,” Lonsky said.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net