School officials announced this morning that more than 93 percent of school budgets across the state passed, despite deep cuts and cuts to programs and staff — the second year education officials have been forced to either raise taxes significantly or make cut back on spending.

The state School Boards Association and state United Teachers union, not surprisingly, had different takes.

“Voters realized that school officials did all they could to limit spending and taxes this year,” said NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer.

Meanwhile, union officials knocked Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call for a 2 percent cap on property taxes and seized on the renewed push for a millionaires tax, which Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said would be re-introduced.

“The choice to give millionaires tax breaks while cutting funding to education will result in thousands of layoffs for middle-class professionals and diminished opportunities for students,” NYSUT Executive Vice President Pallotta said. “Our students deserve better. The state needs to do its fair share and stop passing along the pain to students and local taxpayers in order to please the wealthiest and most privileged in our state.”

The average tax hike in school districts was 3.4 percent, above the 2 percent cap that Cuomo has proposed. The approved 2011-12 state budget cut more than $1.2 billion in education spending. The governor said schools can live with the state spending cuts without raising taxes by slashing overhead.

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