Taxpayers in the town of Lysander may be suffering from whiplash given the up-and-down tax rate of the past few years.
For 2017, property taxes will increase by 7 percent. Last year, the town board slashed taxes for 2016 by 21 percent. Taxes dipped slightly in 2015 after a nearly 37 percent tax hike in 2014.
This year’s hike doesn’t come because of an increase in the town’s budget; in fact, spending is actually down this year in Lysander. Instead, the town is raising taxes because they’re concerned that their fund balance is too low. That’s right: the town doesn’t have enough in savings, so they’re charging the taxpayers more to make up for it.
If you feel like you’ve heard this story before, you have. The Baldwinsville Central School District was recently audited by New York state and was chastised for raising taxes to bolster its fund balance. Now, the town of Lysander is doing the same thing.
Now, the state has specific rules for school districts when it comes to fund balances. They must not exceed 4 percent of their budget in an unrestricted fund balance. The rules are different for municipalities; the comptroller classifies having a 10 percent reserve as very low, while 15 percent – which is where Lysander currently stands – as low. However, does that mean the town is justified in trying to make up that difference in one fell swoop? We don’t think so.
The previous administration enacted a steep tax cut in 2016, cutting the reserve fund from 32 percent down to 15 percent. It was an irresponsible move, certainly, and given that it was done by the outgoing leadership over the objections of both the incoming supervisor and sitting board members Roman Diamond and Bob Geraci, there’s little doubt it was politically motivated.
However, that doesn’t justify the current board’s decision to raise taxes this year. You don’t get to charge your residents more to build up your rainy day fund. We recognize that some tax increase to build the fund balance back up is necessary. A gradual, year-over-year increase would have been more palatable for Lysander’s citizens. But 7 percent in one year is irresponsible.
