East Williston Assistant Superintendent for Business Jacqueline Fitzpatrick clarified the relationship between the school district tax levy and assessments and their impact on residents’ tax bills at Monday night’s East Williston Board of Education meeting
Fitzpatrick used one East Williston homeowners’ tax bill as an example, showing an increase in tax rate from $661.64 to $769.94 between 2011-12 and 2012-13 and an increase in the tax bill from $22,912 to $26,664 during the same period. The house maintained the same assessed value of $3,463.
Another homeowners tax bill in a similar area showed a decrease in assessed value from $3,688 in 2011-12 to $3,130 in 2012-13, with the same tax rate increase as the first example ($661.64 to $769.94) and a tax bill that decreased from $24,401 to $24,099.
“This house saw a 15 percent decrease in assessed value, and got a 1 percent decrease in their tax bill,” Fitzpatrick said. “Since we’re still asking for the same amount of tax levy from the community, and Nassau County has said 93 percent of what we’re asking for comes from the homeowners if one homeowners taxes go down, someone else has to go up.”
Fitzpatrick said the East Williston School District’s tax levy increase for 2012-13 was “the lowest it has been in 20 years,” at 2.6 percent with a $49,385,182 tax levy.
Of the school district’s four tax levy classes, including homeowners, condominiums, utilities and businesses, homeowners comprise 93.28 percent ($46,065,006) of the total tax levy. This is a slight increase from last year, when homeowners represented 93.13 percent of the levy
The county 2012-13 tax rate for homeowners was set at $769.98 for $100 of assessed valuation, Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick said the school district determines what the tax levy is, but noted “the county gives us the percentage between each class.”
“It’s not just the school tax portion, it’s the assessments that really drive what comes out of each individual homeowner,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick concluded by encouraging residents to call her if they have questions about their tax bill.
Board President Mark Kamberg described the Nassau County Department of Assessment as “broken.”
“The governor’s (Andrew Cuomo) tax cap, is not a tax cap at all. It is a cap on the levy which is the amount of money the school can submit for expenses necessary for the district,” Kamberg said. “This district submitted a tax levy that was $372,000 below Governor Cuomo’s allowable amount.”
Kamberg gave examples of what is driving tax increases, such as Nassau County shifting the burden of expenses of sewer taxes “onto the backs of school districts which cost this district over $87,000 that went into our budget.” Kamberg said the board is “working very hard to keep our budget at record low numbers.”
In other developments:
• The board approved of a recommendation to appoint Bonnie Gutwirth-Walsh as probationary school psychologist at Willets Road School. Effective Oct. 23 Gutwirth-Walsh replaced Kathleen Ozimkowski who resigned after the 2011-12 school year.
