The Roslyn Board of Education approved a tax levy last Thursday that, for now, will raise the yearly bill for taxpayers by 0.31 percent.
The district’s 2016-17 budget of $105,097,968 shows an increase of 1.2 percent from last year’s financial plan. Through other revenue streams like state grants, the district was able to pay a majority of the difference, reducing the taxpayer levy to the approved 0.31 percent.
The levy represents a minor increase for homeowners in the district, and would add about $4 to the average monthly bill, said the assistant superintendent of business, Joseph Dragone.
“Roslyn is very proud to keep taxes low again,” the board president, Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy, said. “Our budget increase was slight, and it includes plenty of academic initiatives. We’re proud of it.”
But the levy is only one stage in determining what Roslyn homeowners will owe for the coming year, Dragone said.
“The next step in this process is the county,” he said.
Nassau County assessors will now figure out how much of the taxes are to be paid by homeowners.
For the 2014-15 school year, homeowners were responsible for 80.5 percent of the district’s budget, with the rest falling onto other taxpayers like businesses and apartments.
But Dragone said over the years, the homeowners’ portion has consistently increased.
“In the 47 years that I’ve been doing this, once has the county decided that homeowners should pay a smaller proportion,” Dragone said. “It’s almost always that homeowners will pay a larger portion of the total tax bill.”
The board is projecting the homeowners’ base proportion to rise to 81 to 82 percent for the coming year, which would increase the 0.31 percent figure set by the school district.
After the base proportion is set by county assessors, they then decide how taxes will be spread among taxpayers based on home values.
“It’s called the taxable assessed value of the property,” Dragone said. “If someone’s property increases in value, they’re going to pay more taxes because they’re a larger portion of the base.”
Dragone said he often has homeowners ask him why their taxes go up even though their home value didn’t increase. He explained many homeowners get their homes reassessed by the county, and if the value decreases, their taxes go down as well.
The homeowner who had no change to their home or value might also see a difference in their tax bill due to other fluctuating property values around them.
“If somebody’s going to pay less, somebody else is going to have to pay more,” Dragone said.
The county will finalize the homeowners’ proportion in September, he said.
