School board approves tax warrant, confirms tax rolls for upcoming year

By Jason Emerson

editor

Cazenovia school district residents may not be excited to hear that the school board last week confirmed the district tax rolls and approved the tax warrant for the upcoming year — which signals the collection of real property taxes — but the good news is that the combined school and library tax rate on true value has decreased 47 cents per $1,000 of assessed value (2.6 percent) from last year.

“As a whole, rates went down, but not every single taxpayer may see a decrease,” said Assistant Superintendent Thomas Finnerty during the Aug. 22 school board meeting. “In 2015-16 we had the lowest tax rate in our BOCES … we are being very responsible with our budgets.”

Every year, the school board must confirm the tax rolls, which is based on the district’s assessed property values and the state-determined equalization rates. According to the State Office of Real Property Tax Services, equalization seeks to measure the relationship of locally assessed values to an ever-changing real estate market. At its simplest, an equalization rate is the state’s measure of a municipality’s level of assessment. This is the ratio of total assessed value to the municipality’s total market value.

An equalization rate of 100 means that the municipality is assessing property at 100 percent of market value; an equalization rate of greater than 100 means that the total assessed value for the municipality is greater than its total market value.

The Real Property Tax Law requires that annual state equalization rates be established for each county, city, town and village. Equalization rates are calculated each year to reflect that year’s assessment roll and current market values for each assessing unit.

In order for a school district to fairly distribute its property tax levy (the total amount of school taxes to be collected), the levy needs to be divided in proportion to the total market value of each municipal segment. This is intended to allow for an equitable distribution of taxes based upon the market value of each municipality or segment.

Of the seven towns included in the Cazenovia Central School District — Cazeovia, Fenner, Nelson, Georgetown, Lincoln, Pompey and Sullivan — four had 100 percent equalization rates (Cazenovia, Lincoln, Pompey and Sullivan), two had 98 percent equalization (Nelson and Fenner) and one had 89 percent equalization (Georgetown).

By confirming the tax rolls, the board of education agreed to fix the tax rates based upon the equalization rates and tax roll as received from Madison and Onondaga counties.

The school tax levy for 2016-17 is $17,199,310, while the library tax (which the school district also collects) is $556,864, making a total tax levy of $17,756,174. This means that the school tax rate on true value will be $16.97 per every $1,000 of assessed property value of district residents, while the library tax will be 55 cents for every $1,000 — making a total tax rate on true value of $17.52 per every $1,000 of assessed value, which is 47 cents less than last year, Finnerty said.

By approving the tax warrant, the school board has authorized the school district tax collector to begin the collection of real property taxes.

School breakfast and lunch prices to increase this year

The prices of Cazenovia school district breakfasts and lunches will increase by a dime each for the 2016-17 school year. The increase is part of a “steady climb” in school meal costs that have occurred over the past few years because of the federal mandates that schools sell increasing amounts of healthy foods, according to Cazenovia Assistant Superintendent Thomas Finnerty.

The last two years, district meal prices increased 15 cents each year, while the year before they increased 10 cents. District breakfasts will now cost $2.15 for all students K through 12, while lunches will now cost $2.40 for all students K through 12. The price increase was included in the school board’s Aug. 23 vote to continue its food service management contract with Compass Group (Chartwells) for the 2016-17 school year. This will be the fifth of a five-year contract between the district and the company.