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City school tax rate will go down in 2017-18 by 3.54 percent

By Howard B. Owens

When district officials asked voters to approve a $27 million capital improvement project they promised the tax levy would go up "0.00 percent" and with the approval of the annual tax warrants tonight, Batavia School District trustees kept the promise.

In fact, because assessed values have gone up about 3 percent for properties in the school district, the 2017-18 tax rate for property owners will go down 79 cents, or 3.54 percent.

The new rate will be $21.46 per thousand of assessed value, Business Manager Scott Rozanski told the board.

It's the second year in a row the district has lowered the tax rate by more than 3 percent.

In six of the past 10 years, the school district property tax rate has gone down from the previous year. Accounting for those years the rate has gone up, the average annual increase is .07 .70 percent.

UPDATE: Scott Rozanski provided these PDFs:

He also told us:


The only thing in the District's control is the levy.  The tax rate is determined by a number of factors outside our control (assessments, equalization rate and county adjustments from prior year such as omitted taxes and exemption removals) 
Also, this will be the fourth consecutive year that taxpayers will receive a rebate check from NYS as a result of our compliance with controlling the taxes (tax freeze).

Just one clarification, the ten-year tax levy increase is 0.70 percent (not 0.07 percent) - as written online.

Dave Meyer

What bull$hit.
Assessments went up by 3%. Funny, mine went up by 7%
So after all the wordsmithing with ‘rates’ and ‘levys’ do you think my tax BILL will go up or down??

These people give me a pain in the ass.

And....don’t forget in 8-10 years when that turf at the new stadium has to be replaced. I wonder if we’ll have a zero tax rate increase then?

Sep 19, 2017, 11:41pm Permalink
C. M. Barons

I believe I can help break down the wordsmithing... The tax levy is the total amount of the annual budget to be supported by (in this case) school district residents. When one divides the levy by the total real property value one determines the tax rate which is usually rendered as X per $1000 assessed value. The other factor that determines an individual's tax bill is the assessed value of an individual's real property. The school district has no control over assessment. If the tax Levy remained status quo and the levy went down, yet your tax bill went up blame the local assessors who raised your assessment.

Sep 20, 2017, 2:32am Permalink
Dave Meyer

Thanks CM, but I understand the tax levy and how the rate is determined. One fact that was not presented in the story is the tax levy for the 2017-18 school year. That would be good to know.

Sep 20, 2017, 6:56am Permalink

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