New Tax Cap Law Discussed at Lynbrook Board of Ed Meeting

With the New Year rapidly approaching, the Lynbrook School District has already begun preparations to draft the new school budget. However, the budget planning for the May 2012 vote may differ from past years because of New York States’ new tax cap laws.

This was the subject of Lynbrook Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. Melissa Burak’s presentation at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting.

"The law caps the increase in the school tax levy at a maximum of two percent...unless sixty percent of the school district’s voters approve a school budget increase that will result in a tax levy increase of more than two percent," according to Burak's presentation, which came from a Middletown School District email.

Burak explained that the law actually states that the cap exists at “two percent or the rate of inflation- whatever is less."

However, a two percent tax levy cap does not mean that the annual tax rate will rise by that percentage alone. The tax levy is only one factor in determining tax rate, but is the only one determined by the school system, according to the presentation.  

“When people call the town complaining about taxes and they automatically say it’s the schools fault, this (tax rate formula) is there to show you that it’s not always the schools fault,” Burak said.

Burak’s presentation went on to list items that are required by the state, yet go unfunded. These include new voting machines, new materials to adapt to the common core curriculum, and new training programs. These, allow required by the state or county, must be included in the final tax levy.

“We have to keep our budget and our tax levy low, but they’re putting all of this on us,” Burak said.

These challenges represent reasons why the Middletown School District email was circulated. Middletown is investigating the possibility of bringing legal action against New York State challenging the law.

“Under the tax cap law, the wishes of a majority of the members of the local Board of Education in framing the school budget, and the will of the majority of the voters present and voting on the school budget will, in many cases, be rendered meaningless,” read the email.

The board did not specifically discuss the merits of Lynbrook entering the lawsuit.

 “At this point, it’s really just a question to be aware of the reasons one district has gone out and said ‘this is what we’d like to see done. We’ll continue to monitor that,” trustee William Belmont said.