Many were completely taken aback, unable to comprehend how the tax levy increase that administrators detailed in May, when they presented the school budget, led to these bulging tax bills. In some cases, it meant hundreds of dollars more.
School districts are often inundated with phone calls this time of year from confused and angry taxpayers demanding explanations for their inflated bills. The confusion and anger are warranted. It-s almost impossible for homeowners to deduce what an overall tax levy increase will mean to their tax bills. When they learn that the school district plans to raise the tax levy 7.5 percent, they-re inclined to think that their bills will be going up 7.5 percent. But that-s often not the case.
School districts are bound by law to release only the proposed tax levy increase when presenting their budgets, though in years past they regularly offered homeowners a projected tax rate the cost per $100 of a home-s assessed value. The tax rate enables homeowners to estimate how much they-re going to pay in taxes.
That all changed in 2003, however, when school districts almost across the board stopped providing tentative tax rates. They argued that not enough information is in place in May for them to accurately project such figures. The state budget, which contains education funding, is never in place at that time, they say. They also claim that annual fluctuations in the way the tax burden is distributed among classes of property, particularly between single-family homes and businesses, makes projecting a tax rate almost impossible.
We don-t believe school districts are telling the whole truth.
Last year, Nassau County changed the way a home-s assessed value is calculated a change that sent tax rates through the roof. Up until 2003, the county based assessed value on 1938 construction costs, with 1964 land values added in. Having dumped that antiquated system, the county now sets assessed value at 1 percent of a home-s market value. This part of the tax equation is relatively simple: A house worth $400,000 has an assessed value of $4,000.
Under the old methodology, that same house mostly likely carried a much larger assessed value of $5,000, $6,000 or more. But a decrease in assessed value doesn-t mean a drop in taxes, because the district still needs to raise a significant amount of tax revenue from the community. So homeowners are now simply taxed more for every $100 of their homes- assessed values, and tax rates have ballooned to alarming numbers. In some districts, homeowners now pay upward of $170 per $100 of assessed value.
It-s clear that school administrators no longer want to project tax rates, because they-re afraid huge numbers will scare homeowners into voting budgets down.
We understand that school districts find themselves in precarious situations, because their budgets must be put to community-wide votes. Still, administrators owe it to taxpayers to be forthcoming. Their excuses for not offering tax rates just aren-t good enough. If it-s so difficult to project a figure, then why is it that some districts, including Franklin Square and Rockville Centre, still manage to do it?
We call on our state legislators to amend the law so that school districts are required to provide tentative tax rates along with proposed tax levy increases when presenting their budgets. We also urge residents to reach out to their representatives in the state Senate and Assembly and let them know that such a measure should be a priority in Albany.
