By:Andrew Coen
Parks and many other Five Towners can anticipate some sticker shock when they receive their tax bills this month. As a result of lower assessed values for upscale homes and homeowners in general bearing a higher proportion of the tax burden, both the Hewlett-Woodmere and Lawrence school districts - districts 14 and 15, respectively - have higher tax rates for the 2004-05 school year.
According to the Nassau County Assessor's Office, the tax rate for Lawrence's Class 1 properties, including the library budget, is roughly $125.70 per $100 of 1 percent of the assessed value of a home, a 13.47 percent increase from last year. Class 1 includes residential properties - one-, two- or three-family homes.
Hewlett-Woodmere's tax rate for Class 1 properties, including the library budget, is roughly $199.40, an 11.66 percent increase from the 2003-04 school year. This means that a resident who has a home valued at $400,000 would pay about $8,000 in taxes in District 14 and about $5,000 in District 15.
"I've lived in this community for over 40 years, and the last thing I want to do is have to relocate," said Parks. "I'll hold out as long as I can, but it's gone from bad to worst."
According to Deirdre Gambino, Lawrence's assistant superintendent for business, a decrease in the Nassau County assessments of certain upscale residential properties was a major reason for the tax rate increases. The tax base for Class 1 properties in District 15 is $43 million, compared with $45 million in 2003-04, Gambino said.
"The 4.5 percent drop means they have to pay, in effect, 4.5 percent more," said Gambino.
Gambino projects that the assessments of a good number of the homes in the district will continue to decline, meaning more of the tax burden will fall to the middle class. "The assessment pool is going to keep decreasing everywhere," said Gambino. "It's a problem that every district in Nassau County is facing. It's definitely a challenge, especially in a community with homes that have such huge values."
Another reason for the higher taxes in school districts like Hewlett-Woodmere and Lawrence, according to Gambino, is a 1.75 percent increase in the adjusted base proportion of the tax burden for Class 1 properties, the most common classification for districts 14 and 15. The percentage of taxes paid by Class 1 went from 68 percent last year to 69.75 percent this year, meaning that more of a burden will be placed on homeowners, according to Gambino. The other three property tax classes are for condos and co-ops, utilities and commercial buildings.
Jerome Prisyon, who has lived in the District 14 section of Valley Stream for 34 years, said that last year's school taxes cost him more than $8,000, and he has to use 5 1/2 months of his Social Security checks to pay it off. "I gag every time I have to write that check," said Prisyon. "I intend to live here for the rest of my life, but it will continue to be a struggle each year."
Prisyon is upset at the Hewlett-Woodmere School District for the high taxes. "[The school board] has no mercy for the public, and they will give [the schools] anything they want," he said. "I can't believe that people in this school district continue to pass the school budget without question. Soon this will be a school district of just rich and parochial-school parents."
The 13.4 percent tax increase for Class 1 properties in District 15 means that Woodmere resident Harry Cedarbaum will have to come up with even more than the over $11,000 he paid in taxes last year.
"That's going to shoot me up quite a bit," said Cedarbaum, who served on the District 15 school board's finance committee from 2001 to 2003. "I have four kids in yeshivas, and anybody who has kids in yeshivas and is paying tens of thousands of dollars on their kids' education is going to be hit hard by the tax increase."
Comments about this story? acoen@liherald.com or 569-4000 ext. 210.
