UPDATED: "Healthy" fund balance & HRBRRD back taxes

Question: I understand that Mr. Tomlinson has suggested that the Board use the $475,000 coming to B-P from the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District be used to replenish the fund balance. My question, in "good economical times," what was considered a "healthy" fund balance? What is the fund balance now? Also, Northville will be using some of the back taxes to cut the tax levy for their residents. Since these owed taxes were one of the issues, among others, brought up in the past to justify the hefty tax increases in the district, would the Board be as considerate as Northville, and pass on a cut to their taxpayers as well?

Answer: People have different opinions about what constitutes a "healthy" fund balance. Most of the bond rating agencies – Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and Fitch – recommend a fund balance between 7 and 13 percent of a municipality’s total budget. Other agencies recommend maintaining enough fund balance to cover up to three months’ worth of expenses, which would amount to 25 percent of a municipality's total budget – for B-P, this would be $7.25 million. In general, 5 percent is considered the absolute minimum.

Comment about Patriot Plain Talk

Comment: I have read over the questions here and have to say something about those so concerned about the budget that they would waste the valuable time of our superintendent to ask if someone working for B-P was on school time. I am sure it took him at least fifteen minutes to confirm your answer.

It is quite apparent that some of us want to live in great big homes but not pay the taxes that come with those homes. The bottom line is this: If you can not afford your taxes, you need to downsize.

Why can the BOE raise taxes?

Question: I just want to know how the schooil board can raise taxes on older pople who are on fixed incomes? These pople have no way to make more money. They will have to give up their homes, meds, or food.

Answer: Taxes are charged to all property owners in a district. There is no way to differentiate who gets taxed what amount other than the value of the property. The financial circumstances of particular individuals within a school district have always been and will continue to be different and this is out of the control of the district. We produce a budget that attempts to fulfill the mission of the school and remain fiscally responsible.

Some number of people will be financially stressed no matter how much the total tax levy. This is certainly regrettable and B-P has, for many years, made great efforts to keep the tax levy as low as possible. It is worth noting that the tax levy (per $1,000 of home value) is lower in the Broadalbin-Perth district than 85% of districts in the state. This means that if you could move your house anywhere in NY, you'd likely pay more in taxes than you currently do.

There are ways to make schools cost less. In order to make meaningful change and reduce some of the greatest costs of schools in NY state we need to let our representatives know that we demand reform of education laws. We need mandate relief, a change in the way schools are funded, and reform of the laws governing collective bargaining.

If you would like to help make this change possible please click on this link, take a few minutes to fill in the appropriate information, and mail the letter to your representatives.
Assemblyman Marc Butler
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=117
District Office: 33-41 E. Main Street, Johnstown, NY 12095
Phone: 518-762-6486

Senator Hugh T. Farley
http://www.nysenate.gov/senator/hugh-t-farley
District Office: 2430 Riverfront Center, Amsterdam, NY 12010
Phone: (518) 843-2188

-answered by Ed Szumowski, Board of Education Vice President

How many tax bills in 2010 were not paid or paid late?

Question: At the May 9 budget forum a question was asked about how many 2010 tax bills remain unpaid and how many were paid late.


Answer: A summary of data at the end of the 2010 tax season follows:

6,553 Total parcels

6,398 Taxable parcels
6,292 Parcels that owe taxes
5,567 Parcels paid in full
725 Delinquent parcels
532 Parcels made late payments during our collection period and paid penalties

Can you project the tax rate for 2011-12 based on the 2010-11 budget?

Question: Using the 2010-11Town of Broadalbin property assessment roll and equalization rate as a basis, what would the tax rate be for the proposed 2011-12 BPCSD budget?

Answer: I have some projected numbers for the Town of Broadalbin. According to projected data I have at this point, the Town of Broadalbin is looking at a tax increase right around 4%.

Generally, if the School District shows true value property growth for any given school year, the District's tax rate increase percentage will be less than the tax levy increase percentage.

For towns, equalization rates are the big dial-mover. If a Town's equalization rate goes up, it means that their assessments are closer to true value than they were the year before. Because of that, residents will see a tax increase less than the District tax rate. If a town's equalization rate goes down, it means that assessments are further from true value, which increase the actual value of homes, hence increasing the taxes. In this case, tax bills in the town will show increases above the District's true value tax rate.
-answered by Marco Zumbolo, School Business Administrator

"New" money for schools

Question: Now that B-P has received "new" money, how will that impact the school taxes?  How can the B-P school business administrator also be the purchasing agent for the Amsterdam School District?

Answer: The short answer to your first question is, it won't affect school taxes. The "new" money you're referring to comes from two sources: the Federal Education Jobs Act, and Race to the Top (RTTT). Although complete guidelines for the funds haven't been released, both sets of money come with "strings." Broadalbin-Perth will be receiving $750,000 from the Federal Education Jobs Act, and that money has to be used by the end of the 2011-12 school year to "create or maintain jobs." B-P will receive approximately $65,000 from RTTT, which should be just enough to cover whatever mandates end up being attached to that money. So, according to the government guidelines that come with the money, neither set of funds can be used for school tax relief.

As for your question about Amsterdam's purchasing agent, that's my dad. His first name is also Marco, so I can understand your confusion.
- answered by Marco Zumbolo, School Business Administrator

School supplies

Question: The school year is about here. I just have to know why, with school taxes so high, do you send letters home telling us that we have to send supplies for the school to use in the classroom?

Answer: We've always asked students to provide supplies on a classroom supply list, even in good times. Over the past three years, however, we have made significant budget cuts, including eliminating nearly all funding for classroom supplies. Under a contingent budget, which the district operated under three years ago, the school is actually legally prohibited from purchasing any supplies for students' use. After eliminating funding for student classroom supplies three years ago, we haven't reinstated that funding.

School district boundaries

Question: Seeing the tax rates per town table in one of the other questions leads me to ask - how are school district lines determined? How is it that towns that have their own schools are part of our district? How is it that parts of Broadalbin and Perth don't belong to the B-P district?

Answer: According to New York State Education Law (Article 37, Section 1801: Formation and Changes of Central School Districts), "The commissioner of education is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out central school districts for the establishment of central schools to give instruction in elementary or elementary and high school subjects and to fix, determine and define the boundaries of said districts as hereinafter provided."

That being said, the boundaries of the former Broadalbin and Perth central schools were created long before my time. When the two districts merged, their boundaries were also merged. Today, the boundary we work with is based on the taxable parcels in the district tax rolls.

2010-11 School tax rates

Question: I have not seen the 2010-11 tax rate published or covered by the local media. Has the district set this yet? If so, what is the rate?

Answer: Members of the Board of Education accepted a 14.32% tax levy increase during their August meeting. Because of changes to assessments and equalization rates, the true value of taxable parcels in the district dropped by more than 3.6%. Therefore, the true-value tax rate district-wide increased 18.63%. The table below breaks that down by town (click on table to enlarge it):

On the proposed budget

Comment: Over the past few weeks the words “School Budget Vote” has evoked many different emotions from many different people. It can leave questions in your mind. It can leave you with very strong opinions. And all of this is ok, it is after all a free country in which we have the right to say what we believe. In order to form the best opinion in voting for myself, I did a lot of research and I want to share what I learned from various sources (all public information).

Tax rate increases under proposed budget

Question: The budget newsletter states that for a MEDIAN tax payer who paid $920 in school taxes this year, they will see an increase of about $144 next year. Does that mean for some one like myself that paid $2500 in school taxes this year I will now pay around $2900 this year? In 2003, my school tax bill was about $1500. That looks like almost a 50% increase in my taxes in less than eight years. I've made no improvements and my assesment is the same! How about a simple formula for us to use, like you will see an increase in your school tax by "X" dollars per thousand in assesment. I realize this may be specific to the towns we reside in but it should be easy enough to figure and give us real numbers to analyze before we vote on the budget. If my calculations are correct, and if you reside in Perth as I do, you will see around a $21 per thousand in assessment increase with the proposed budget.

Answer: As much as we would like to give you a simple formula or "real" numbers as you asked for, unfortunately it's not that easy. The situation is especially complicated this year because the state has not adopted a budget and there are multiple proposals in Albany for various amounts of aid to schools: Gov. David Paterson proposed a 5% across-the-board cut in foundation aid to schools (a proposal that State Senate Democrats support), while the State Assembly Democrats support reinstating $600 million of foundation aid from what Gov. Paterson proposed. Until a state budget is adopted, which might not be until July, we're forced to work with worst-case scenario numbers -- in this case, Gov. Paterson's proposed budget, which calls for a loss of $1.744 million in foundation aid for Broadalbin-Perth. If some or all of this foundation aid is restored, the Board of Education can choose to use some or all of the restored aid to offset the local tax levy -- thus making your tax increase for next year much less than your calculations indicate. However, if the cuts proposed by Gov. Paterson stand, then Broadalbin-Perth's tax levy could increase as much as 14%.

Employee Compensation Roundtable: Staff Cuts & School Taxes

The Community Roundtable on employee compensation that was held on Monday, Jan. 11, included lively discussion on a variety of topics. In order to keep the conversation going, we invite readers to post their thoughts on the following question that was presented to participants at the Community Roundtable. Click here to read notes on what was discussed at the Community Roundtable.

Broadalbin-Perth is in the middle of another difficult budget year in which tough decisions must be made. At this time last year, district administrators and the Board of Education informed the public that staff cuts would be likely in order to offset rising costs of operations and reduce the local tax levy. One full-time administrator position and four full-time teaching positions were eliminated at the end of the 2008-09 school year.

Fair market value and school taxes

Question: (1) Who decides what the “fair market value” of district resident properties will be? (2) I understand that this may have been the reason many of us saw our school taxes rise 22% instead of the 12% that was voted for. (3) As a follow-up, why are residents not advised that their fair market value has been increased before they receive their tax bill? (4) Also, how do you account for an increase in fair market value when property values in Fulton County have dropped as well as home sales?

Answer: These are very good questions, which I’ll answer, in detail, one at a time. But first I want to point out that parts of the questions relate to things (land assessments, equalization rates, STAR exemptions) that the school district has no control over. That said, I’ll try to answer each question to the best of my ability.