This past week saw a wrinkle in what has become the traditional narrative of school budget season in the Bethlehem Central School District, and residents residing therein (and districts nearby) should take notice.
What’s most important about the proposal to most folks is the district is asking for a nearly 4 percent increase in the property tax levy, which is a full percent higher than allowed by the state tax cap.
The merits of the tax cap can be discussed at length, but it has undeniably changed the conversation at budget time in most school districts. This year, schools in the area are tending to start their budgeting by setting taxes to that maximum level then making whatever cuts or withdrawals from savings necessary to bring the numbers in line. BC is bucking that trend, but what remains to be seen is whether doing so will excite the ire or the understanding of taxpayers.
According to the district, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would see an $81 tax increase under next year’s budget, which doesn’t sound like a tall price to pay when considering the plan would keep a lot of people in their jobs and a lot of programs from the chopping block. It’s pretty close to a trip to the pumps these days.
However, what school districts rarely advertise in their press releases is the existing tax rate. Bethlehem Central didn’t, so we looked it up and found the owner of a $100,000 house is paying just over $2,000 in school taxes, whether that home is in New Scotland or Bethlehem. That’s 2 percent of the value of a home going to the school district every year.
That bill is more or less in line with what taxpayers in the Guilderland School District pay (depending on your town of residence) and generally a bit higher than what’s owed by residents in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District, so it’s not like BC exists in some sort of tax bubble.
It’s still a lot of money, though, which is why it will be interesting to see what happens with this year’s budget vote in BC. Since this tax levy exceeds the state tax cap, at least 60 percent of those turning out to vote will have to approve of it, instead of a simple majority. This will undoubtedly be a much-watched vote for administrators in districts that cut deeper instead of challenging the cap.
For the past three years, the vote has passed by a roughly 66 percent margin, but what school administrators know is budgeting is as much a game of gauging popular sentiment at it is balancing dollars and cents. Will the tax cap serve as a trigger that swings public opinion?
Whether 60 percent of the community is supportive of this budget is something we’ll probably never know. In the past decade, the largest number of voters coming out for a BC school budget vote was in 2006 for a revote. Nearly 6,000 people turned out, which is still a pretty paltry number compared to the district’s population (and let’s note you do not have to be a registered voter to participate in this process, just a resident of the district).
If you were hoping to read an editorial that takes a stance on this budget, sorry to disappoint. Whether the extra money is a worthwhile request by the district is ultimately a subjective determination. What we’d ask is for people to realize the importance of this moment when it comes to the fiscal policy of the largest tax-levying entity in the immediate area, make a determination using the bounty of information in these pages and elsewhere and take five minutes to vote on May 15.
Pass or fail, the message a low turnout sends is residents don’t care about their taxes. And that’s a dangerous thought to promote.
