Southampton School District Presents New Projections For Tuckahoe Merger

A revamped plan for the proposed annexation of the Tuckahoe School District by the Southampton School District drew mixed responses at a Southampton School Board meeting on Tuesday night.

Ultimately, the consensus was that more hard numbers and transparency were in order.

According to Southampton Superintendent Dr. Scott Farina, the district has spent the last several months going line by line through both the Southampton and Tuckahoe district budgets to come up with more concrete numbers than were available in a merger feasibility study released last year. While the district presented preliminary numbers on Tuesday night, many residents are requesting the full report and a breakdown as to how the district arrived at certain numbers.

In the line-by-line budget projection, the combined district is looking at $4 million in annual savings compared to what two individual districts would cost in one year, Dr. Farina said.

“We have learned some lessons from last year,” he said, referring to a failed attempt to convince Southampton voters to approve a merger. “One of the biggest problems we had was that we didn’t have firm financial predictions on what the district would look like should the two districts merge.”

The original merger study estimated that Southampton taxpayers could expect to see an increase of roughly 21 cents per $1,000 to their annual property tax rate, which would be about 8.7 percent, or $210 more per year, on a house assessed at $1 million.

But in the new study, the tax increase is projected at 33 cents spread out over a decade, greatly reducing the size of immediate increases. The increases would not go into effect until the 2018-19 school year. At the 10-year mark, the tax impact for a $1 million house would be $330 higher due to the merger.

Under the current proposal, the Southampton School District tax rate would increase from $2.44 to $2.77 per $1,000 of assessed valuation over the decade. Tuckahoe residents would see a decrease from $7.57 to the same $2.77 per $1,000 of assessed valuation over 10 years. These tax rate changes do not take into account changes in home assessment, or the regularly incurred annual increases to the tax rate and district budget.

During the meeting, one resident, Steve Abramson, expressed concern that the numbers are misleading, saying that they do not accurately reflect the total bill taxpayers will be footing, but merely the increase in the tax bill. If the merger were approved, and once the 10-year increase in the tax levy went into effect, the average tax increase would be $33 annually—but that number reflects only the increase, not the overall levy and the cumulative effect of the annual increases.

While some people spoke out against the merger at the meeting, others simply requested more information, saying the district would be doing a disservice to itself and the merger not to provide it.

“I think it is time we got some good, hard facts out to the people,” resident Judith Johnson said. “I personally think this merger should have happened years ago, but my concern as a retired educator is that we should be thinking about the children who are going to grow up and are going to be able to stay in the community and stay in the community.

“Sure, it comes down to the money,” she continued, “but you get what you pay for, and this board has to look people in the eye and not fudge a lot of stuff and get this out to the community, or this merger will be walloped again.”

Other community residents were not so positive.

Southampton resident Susan Stevenson said she does not see how the presented plan is financially viable for the Southampton community. Ms. Stevenson said that the loss of tuition money coming in to Southampton for Tuckahoe students, combined with an increase in the tax rate, means that Southampton taxpayers will be footing part of the bill for the annexation and for the future education of the Tuckahoe students. “We would be getting something like 25 percent more students, with only their minimal $10 million budget,” she said. “Where is the part where this is getting paid for?”

At the meeting, Dr. Farina said the district will have a public information meeting in a few weeks with more information about how the districts would merge and a more in-depth analysis of district finances.

Also in attendance at the meeting was Tuckahoe Superintendent Chris Dyer, and Tuckahoe Board of Education members Bob Grisnik and Harald Steudte, though none of them addressed the Southampton School Board. When the Tuckahoe administrators were asked a question by a Southampton resident, Dr. Farina responded that the Tuckahoe officials were there to observe and not take questions.

“We are very appreciative of the Southampton leadership pursuing educational opportunities of the merger to provide relief to all taxpayers,” Mr. Dyer said on Wednesday. “We think that the leadership is being very proactive with their budget, and we look forward to being able to share information with them and help the process.”

After a series of public hearings, the district intends to reschedule the straw vote for Southampton residents this fall, possibly in November. Tuckahoe residents will also have to redo the straw vote that approved the merger last fall. If both districts approve the annexation in the straw votes, the proposal would move to a second vote, possibly in January, that would make a final decision on the annexation.