Independent Editorial: A Problem With the System

Each year, communities are presented with the seemingly inevitable higher school budgets — and the attending annual increases in school taxes. Residents in Irvington, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown will vote on May 20 their approval or disapproval.

School officials and school boards have labored for months over the financial data and daunting educational requirements before presenting their budgets to the public. The budgets are often trimmed to keep school tax increases within the limits of perceived acceptance by residents.

It is not an easy task. Contractual obligations must be absorbed. Utility costs rise. State and federal mandates must be met, often without the financial aid needed to implement them. Infrastructure needs repair or replacement. Debt service has to be taken into consideration. New technology has to be integrated into the system. And on it goes.

When local property taxes were first enlisted as the financial source for maintaining the schools, the educational requirements and related activities were not as complex or as extensive. In New York, the methods used to keep school taxes reasonably equitable have become complicated and occasionally inequitable, as is the pronounced case this year with Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown (see “School Budgets Bump Up Taxes”).

While each school district determines its budgetary needs, it also has to consider the total value of property from which it can draw taxes. However, the assessed value of a taxable property, compared with the actual market value of the property, often differs from municipality to municipality. You may live in a house that will sell for $500,000, but it is on the tax assessment rolls at $15,000. That same type house in another town may be assessed at a totally different amount, or, though it is rarely the case, at full market value.

In an attempt to balance these differences, the state estimates the actual value of all properties in municipalities, and prescribes a different “equalization rate” for each municipality to use in figuring its taxes. The difficulty with this system was quite evident last month when it was determined that — although they share the same school district — Tarrytown’s property owners would be confronted with a considerably higher school tax increase than homeowners in neighboring Sleepy Hollow.

There is a growing call among local school officials and board members for either changes or a general overhaul in the system to eliminate such discrepancies and solve other defects. If that doesn’t happen, individual districts may need to seek remedies. Either way, they will need community support and involvement when they press ahead for solutions whether they come through the state Legislature, the county or the courts, and this community reinforcement should be provided.   

Meantime, we believe voters should approve the budgets for both the Irvington schools and the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns. They are well thought-out plans and if they don’t pass, it is the communities’ children who will be the losers.