Taxpayers in the Gloversville and Johnstown school districts have new tax rates to ponder and will notice some unanticipated fluctuations.
In Gloversville, where the tax levy is increasing by 6 percent, property owners in the city of Gloversville are receiving a 16.5 percent tax cut. The reduction was made possible by a citywide property revaluation that increased the tax base by 28 percent and raised the city’s equalization rate from 83 percent to 100 percent.
The tax rates in Gloversville and Bleecker, which also has a 100 percent equalization rate, are $18.73 per $1,000 assessed value. Last year, the rates were $22.42 and $18.62, respectively.
In the town of Johnstown, where the equalization rate fell from 74 to 73 percent, the tax rate is $25.66, up about 50 cents from last year. The new rates in Mayfield and Caroga are $27.96 and $35.35, respectively, up from $24.82 and $33.87 last year.
Gloversville school board President Perry Paul said it is noteworthy that property owners in the city of Gloversville will receive a 16.5 percent tax cut in a year in which the tax levy is increasing.
Paul said it is important that district voters keep school finances on track by going to the polls for Monday’s referendum and approving the purchase of one large bus and three vans at a total cost of about $200,000. With 90 percent state aid, he said, those vehicles will cost district taxpayers 10 cents on the dollar.
If the buses are rejected, he said, the board may have to lease the vehicles at a cost of up to $70,000 for the year.
In the Greater Johnstown School District, where the tax levy is rising about 2 percent, the rate in the city of Johnstown will climb from $20.80 to $21.72 — an increase of 4.4 percent.
At its Thursday meeting, the Johnstown school board voted to apply $50,000 in supplemental state aid to reduce the tax levy increase. At the time of the May budget vote, the tax levy increase was to be about 3 percent.
The 2007-08 and 2008-09 tax rates in the district’s other municipalities are:
Town of Johnstown, $20.61 decreasing to $19.92.
Town of Ephratah, $24.18 decreasing to $23.17.
Town of Palatine, $23.24 increasing to $24.23.
City of Gloversville, $18.37 decreasing to $14.54.
The city of Johnstown’s equalization rate fell from 73 percent to 67 percent while equalization rates in the district’s other jurisdictions remained fairly static, a situation that altered the apportionment of the tax burden.
As a result, taxes in the city of Johnstown rose 4.42 percent while falling 3.35 percent in the town of Johnstown.
Categories: Schenectady County
