Oct 10, 2012 1:38 PM
An estimated 80 percent of property owners within the Westhampton Beach School District will see their school taxes increase about 6 percent next year, or more than double the 3 percent originally estimated by district officials prior to the adoption of the $51.8 million budget for the 2012-13 school year last May, due to an overall drop in land values.
According to Southampton Town Tax Assessor Lisa Goree, the taxable value of land in the Westhampton Beach School District has decreased by more than $134 million, or just under 3 percent, over the past year, from $4,542,135,078 to $4,407,932,929. Because of this decrease, the school’s district’s tax rate, which was $5.53 per 1,000 last year, had to increase by 33 cents, to $5.86, to cover the district’s $26.3 million tax levy.
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According to Southampton Town Tax Assessor Lisa Goree, the taxable value of land in the Westhampton Beach School District has decreased by more than $134 million, or just under 3 percent, over the past year, from $4,542,135,078 to $4,407,932,929. Because of this decrease, the school’s district’s tax rate, which was $5.53 per 1,000 last year, had to increase by 33 cents, to $5.86, to cover the district’s $26.3 million tax levy.
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This story is just stirring the pot. Yes, schools have to be careful with the expenditure of tax dollars, but tax assessments have nothing to do with school governance.
Property Assessments simply decide how responsibility for a tax levy will be distributed in a community.
If you find that your tax bill is going up more than your neighbor, then you can take some small solace that the value of your property (at least in the eye of the assessor) did not decline as much as others in the community.
I could join you in ...more objections about school spending, but this story is not that story.