District worries about limited revenue from state properties
PHOENICIA, N.Y. » Onteora school district Superintendent Victoria McLaren wants New York lawmakers to take a stand against a proposal in the state budget that would limit the increase on taxes paid for properties owned by the state to 1.02 percent.
Addressing state Sen. James Seward during Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, McLaren said: “One of the ... things that is of concern to us and other rural districts is the provision within the budget for a cap on property taxes paid on state land.
“As you know we are a very rural district, New York state is our second largest taxpayer, they pay over $2 million in taxes, and it represents 5 percent of our levy,” McLaren added. “So that provision, although not widely publicized, would have an impact on our district.”
Seward, R-Milford, did not respond to the concern and instead focused on how aid calculations are formulated based on favoring private property assessments over the personal incomes of district residents.
“I would certainly favor changes in how we measure the wealth of a school district,” he said.
McLaren earlier noted that state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, had suggested state aid calculations could be based on property values rather than a person’s ability to pay.
“He had mentioned ... the potential for altering how the combined wealth ratio is constituted,” she said. “Right now, it is heavily weighted for property wealth within a district, and he was indicating there might be some opportunity to change the way that the ratio is formulated to make it more even in terms of income wealth and property wealth.”
Seward acknowledged that some of the issues faced by school districts are the result of problems at the state level. Among them: the inability of districts to establish reserve funds that can be used to cover unexpected costs associated with retirement accounts that are handled by state officials.
“You can’t do it for teachers’ retirement contributions, that’s an obvious one right there and there may be others,” Seward said. “I certainly favor giving school districts more flexibility. Part of that financial planning would be the ability to have funds in place to level off the peaks and valleys of the expense of some of these programs.”