Tuesday, people will head to the polls to vote on their school district budgets. With the state cutting funding this year, the budgets are expected to contain a lot of pain, but little tax relief. Our Nick Reisman reports.

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NEW YORK STATE -- Tuesday is decision day for the 697 school districts in New York. And as many school administrators are cutting back on teachers, staff and salaries, taxpayers are still facing an average hike of 3.4 percent. That's above the two percent cap on school property taxes proposed by Andrew Cuomo, but he says districts need to cut more fat.

"You know my position on the property tax cap. It's clear, it's simple. I've said, I've written it, I've yelled it. So I have my position, the Assembly has their position, the Senate has their position. The Senate has passed my bill. We do not have a bill yet. Conversations are ongoing," Cuomo said.

The state United Teachers Union, meanwhile, urged voters in a radio ad this week to support school budgets that in their view, adequately fund education.

"On May 17, remember to vote, because it's your turn to pass it on. Paid for by the state United Teachers Union," one radio ad said.

Cuomo has told superintendents to cut their pay, reduce bureaucracy and tap into their reserve funds. But education advocates like Rick Timbs of the Statewide School Finance Consortium say the extra money just isn't there.

"They're running out of reserves. We've calculated that about 10 percent of the schools will make it through this coming school year, which is the 2011-12 school year. Then they're really going to run out of reserves and they'll have an inability to maintain their funds," Timbs said.

And living within a two percent cap as proposed by Cuomo could be impossible without reducing costly required spending such as contractually obligated raises, insurance and pension costs. Low-wealth districts in particular could be hurt.

"Pension costs alone are probably going to increase a budget by 1.6 percent. So automatically reserves will not enough to save them," Timbs said.

Districts that have budgets turned down by voters must submit revised plans by June for a new vote. Last year, more than 90 percent of school districts budgets were approved.