ALBANY — This year’s record increase in state education aid didn’t stop school districts from raising local property taxes, as voters across the state yesterday overwhelmingly approved bigger budgets and higher tax levies to pay for the extra spending.

Voters taking part in annual local district elections endorsed budgets that sent per-student spending upward by an average of 6%. In doing so, they also agreed to increase the total per-student property tax levy by almost 4%.

The district elections came less than two months after Governor Spitzer signed a fiscal budget that increased public school aid by 10%, to $19.2 billion, delivering an additional $1.7 billion to schools in a state with already one of the highest per-student spending rates in the country.

Mineola, in Nassau County, is getting 22.4% more state school aid this year than last, an increase of $1 million. Residents in the district nevertheless voted to lift total school spending per student by 5%, to $75 million, and to raise its tax levy also by 5%.

Bronxville in Westchester County is raising its per student spending by 6% and its per student tax levy by 4%. The state is giving the district 9% more funding in this year’s budget.

Yesterday’s elections did not include New York City, Buffalo, Syracuse Yonkers, and Rochester, whose residents do not vote on school budgets.

Although districts increased their total tax levies by a smaller percentage than in previous years, the still significant increase further suggests that the amount of school aid districts receive has a little impact on how much they tax their residents.

Instead of passing on the extra revenue to property owners, most districts prefer to use the money on larger budgets, which require them to collect even more taxes from the communities.

A spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, Darren Dopp, said the administration was disappointed by the tax hikes but said: “It’s the prerogative of the local school district and voters.”

In an odd twist, the higher taxes could help districts collect even more money from Albany.

Legislators this year created a special “high tax” category of aid worth $100 million that benefited school districts with higher property taxes. Senate Republicans, who sought to steer more education money to Long Island, demanded the new funding stream, argued that districts with higher taxes deserved more help from the state.

Thomas Dunham, a spokesman for Senator Dean Skelos, a representative of Long Island who lobbied aggressively for the high tax aid, said the senator “advised the school boards to be judicious in their budgeting because future education aid packages are uncertain.”

In the end, he said, “It’s an issue for the voters to decide. That’s the whole point of having local control of school budgeting.”

Voters approved more than 95% of the budgets on the ballot, setting a record passage rate. Districts whose residents reject the proposed budget either put the spending plan up for another vote or adopt a contingency plan that increases spending by less than 4%.

While the high property tax rate was perhaps the most pressing concern for New York voters, New Yorkers traditionally don’t opt for fiscal restraint in district elections.

Part of the reason has to do with the influence of state teachers union, which spends more than $1 million each year to promote the local budgets with advertising and leafleting.

For many residents, the amount a school spends is taken as a measure of the quality of the district. Districts with higher per-student spending rates are generally seen as more desirable.

“People want good schools,” a spokesman for New York State United Teachers, Carl Korn, said in an interview. “They understand that costs go up, and they understand that education is an investment.”

A spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, David Ernst, said higher labor costs accounted for most of the new expenses.

He said a major chunk of the money is going toward teacher health care benefits and pension costs. Union-friendly provisions in New York’s labor law, including one that requires that the terms of a collective bargaining agreement continue after the agreement has expired, have made it difficult for districts to negotiate less expensive contracts.

Mr. Ernst said Albany lawmakers did not increase aid with the expectation that districts would lower property taxes.

“I don’t think anybody stood up and said, ‘I don’t want this money to be used to improve student achievement, I want it all used to roll back property taxes,'” he said.