By: Nick Buglione
Some residents expressed shock at just how high their taxes have jumped, unable to grasp how the tax levy increase they were told about in May would translate onto their bills in November.
"Everybody was taken by surprise," said Viki DeJong, a Salisbury resident and civic activist. "People are a little put out because they didn't expect [an increase] to that degree."
Living on fixed incomes, senior citizens were especially taken aback. "This is why so many people are moving out of Long Island," said Otto Jensen, 79, who has lived in East Meadow for 50 years.
Even with the breaks he received through his veterans' benefits and the STAR program, Jensen said he has to pay over $3,000 in school taxes. Many other residents have to pay twice that much.
East Meadow Deputy Superintendent Leon Campo said the district usually fields phone calls from angry or confused homeowners regarding tax bills this time of year.
Campo attributed the higher than expected taxes to a shift in property values. There are four classifications of property in a community--detached homes, multi-family dwellings, utilities and commercial. The school tax burden is distributed among among those classes.
This year, however, there was a significant shift in the burden away from the businesses and onto homeowners, thanks to a fluctuation in property values, Campo said.
So, while East Meadow homeowners were expecting a tax levy increase of 8.9 percent, a number that was later reduced to 8.2 percent because of extra state funding the district received, they actually wound up absorbing a 10.4 percent raise, Campo said.
"An 8.24 tax levy translated into a higher tax rate because of the shift that the Nassau County assessor's office set in values away from commercial property and to single-family homes," Campo said. "[Homeowners] are confused and they have a right to be confused."
In past years, when school districts were pitching their budgets, they used to provide residents with an estimated tax rate. The rate essentially detailed how much money in taxes they would be paying per every $100 of their home's assessed value.
From that tax rate, residents could calculate roughly what their tax bills would look like in the fall.
School districts, including East Meadow, argued this year that not enough information was in place to accurately project a tax rate. For example, the state budget, which includes education funding figures, was still up in the air. Annual shifts in property values between the classes also played a factor, Campo said.
Some think, however, that a change in how the county determines a home's assessed value is also leading districts to no longer offer tentative tax rates.
Up until 2003, Nassau County determined a home's assessed value through 1938 construction costs, with 1964 land values added in, a rather antiquated system. The county now calculates the figure by simply taking 1 percent of a home's true market value. In other words, an East Meadow house worth $350,000 will carry an assessed value of $3,500.
Under the old methodology, however, that same $350,000-house mostly likely carried a much larger assessed value of $5,000, $6,000 or more.
Since the district still needs to raise a significant amount of tax revenue from the community, that same homeowner now has to pay more taxes on every $100 of the home's assessed value. As a result, tax rates have ballooned to alarming numbers. Under East Meadow's 2004-05 tax rate, homeowners are paying $177 per every $100 of assessed value.
Some speculate that school districts no longer project tax rates because they fear the huge numbers will prompt residents to vote down budgets.
In a September letter to the community, East Meadow Superintendent Dr. Robert Dillon said the school district received an additional $500,000 in state aid, which it would apply toward lowering the tax levy.
Information posted on the New York State Department of Education Web site, though, revealed that the East Meadow School District is set to receive approximately $30 million in state aid, nearly $5 million more than the district budgeted in its 2004-05 fiscal plan. The school district figured on getting around $25 million from the state.
It's led some to question why only $500,000 was applied toward lowering taxes.
Campo confirmed that the district did receive about $5 million more than it anticipated and explained that more wasn't applied because until that money comes in, it's not set in stone.
"You don't get your aid in equal little slices," Campo said. "We may or may not get that [money]. We have historically taken a conservative approach to what we apply."
He went on to note that in the 1990s millions of dollars of promised state aid were pulled from the school district, forcing administrators to halt construction projects in order to prevent program cuts. The experience left the district with a bad taste in its mouth, Campo said, and it's never counted on receiving every dollar promised from the state again.
If the state does come through with the $30 million in aid, the extra $5 million can be used to lower future taxes, Campo said.
"It goes into a fund balance and as that fund balance goes up, the board can appropriate from that some of money something to ameliorate the rise in taxes," Campo said.
Comments about this story? NBuglione@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
