Slight increase in Schenectady school tax

PHOTOGRAPHER: Patrick Dodson

Laurence Spring, Schenectady City School District Superintendent, speaks during the Schenectady High School commencement at Proctors on Friday, June 26, 2015.

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The Schenectady Board of Education approved a slight increase in taxes for the 2015-16 school year.

During a meeting Wednesday evening, the board voted in favor of a $54.1 million tax levy, which is unchanged from this year.

The average taxpayer would see an estimated tax rate increase of 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or about $11 more on a house assessed at $100,000, according to Schenectady City School District Superintendent Laurence Spring.

“That’s without factoring in STAR or the [state tax] rebate,” Spring said. “We’re well under our cap so people will be getting the rebate again.”

Residents in the section of Rotterdam that is in the Schenectady district would see a decrease of about 38 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Spring stressed that the tax rate is out of the district’s control, while the tax levy is a calculation of what the city schools need to run programs next school year.

“The tax levy is a calculation of what it is we need to operate next year and then we subtract out of that number everything we think we will get as revenue from other sources,” he said. “As we build our budget we have in mind what we think those revenues are going to be. What’s left is what we need from the taxpayers.”

Spring said he understands city residents are paying high taxes and that the district is trying to keep the rate as low as possible.

“We wanted to do this budget by keeping the levy flat,” he said.

The district’s $193.4 million budget includes $3.4 million in new spending, mostly to add specialists to address student behavior issues. The district also received $500,000 in state funding secured by local Assembly members Angelo Santabarbara and Phil Steck.

The additional state aid will be used to add a handful of positions in the next school year, including about three intervention and reading specialists and two music teachers, Spring said.

The actual tax impact depends upon the equalization rates. Schenectady’s tentative equalization rate is 121 percent this year, according to the state, which indicates that property here is assessed at 21 percent more than estimated market value.

That’s compared to an equalization rate of 123 percent last year and 108 percent in 2013. Rotterdam’s tentative equalization rate this year is 100 percent, according to the state.

The tax rate per $1,000 of assessed property value is $22.719702 in the city and $27.511243 for the town of Rotterdam.