Returns: LI school budgets pass by large margins

An overwhelming number of school budgets passed Tuesday night by large margins.
Only two school districts had the potential to pierce its tax cap during the vote.
In Patchogue-Medford, the budget and Proposition No. 3 were defeated. The proposition would have required the district to bus private and parochial school students up to 10 miles further than their current service. If it had passed, the tax increase would have gone from 2.86 percent to 3.28 percent.
In East Meadow, the budget and Proposition No. 2 - which adds full-day kindergarten - was approved by voters. With their tax cap pierced, their rate will increase from 2.13 percent to 3.02 percent.
A 60 percent vote, or super-majority, was required for either proposition to pass.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's property tax cap was signed into law back in 2011. Supporters say the cap is a way of controlling property tax rates, which rank among the highest in the nation.
The tax cap law expires next year, though political insiders say the legislature is likely to extend it.