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School boards
association set to explore life under ‘The Cap’
Association meeting will measure effects of tax cap
legislation on local
schools and businesses
 Aug.
5, 2011 - The Mohawk-Sacandaga School Boards Association will
meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 15, 2011 at HFM BOCES
Conference Center to hear perspectives from an assortment of
education and business leaders on the effects of the newly
enacted, two-percent property tax cap on local schools and
businesses.
The new law promises to be a game changer for public schools,
according to Dr. Richard Timbs, Executive Director of the
Statewide School Finance Consortium.
Dr. Timbs and Timothy Kremer, Executive Director of the New York
State School Boards Association, will join Fulton-Montgomery
Community College President Dr. Dustin Swanger, Fulton County
Regional Chamber of Commerce President Wally Hart, and a panel
of HFM BOCES component school superintendents to discuss the
challenges under the tax cap.
Signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this month,
even the name of the new legislation creates confusion,
according to HFM BOCES District Superintendent Dr. Patrick
Michel.
"The two percent number is nearly irrelevant when it comes to
actually calculating the tax levy, and the legislation never
promises that local property taxes will be “capped” and not rise
above two percent. So what does it mean to live under the cap?"
Dr. Michel said.
The two percent tax levy limit defined in law serves as a
trigger for determining what percentage of voters will be
required to approve the increase in the levy, according to New
York State Council of School Superintendents’ Deputy Director
for Advocacy, Research and Communications Robert Lowry.
According to Lowry, if a district seeks a tax levy increase
greater than the tax levy limit, approval by 60 percent of
voters will be required. If the district requests an increase
under the limit, approval by a simple majority (50 percent plus
1 vote) will suffice. Districts will be permitted two chances to
obtain voter approval. Lowry explains that if voters do not
approve an increase in the levy, districts are capped at the
prior year's levy.
“In other words, if unable to gain voter approval, a school
district would be capped at the prior year’s tax levy – in
essence a zero percent cap,” Lowry said.
New York State School Boards Association President Timothy
Kremer predicts that poorer, high needs districts will struggle
under the cap.
“Districts that have lots of needs in their population, and with
low property wealth, will not able to raise the money they need
locally, becoming even more dependent on limited state aid,”
Kremer said. “Albany needs to deal with required spending—known
commonly as state mandates—in order to help districts live under
the cap.”
Some mandate relief was included in the legislation, something
Lowry characterized as “barely worth summarizing,” and a mandate
relief council was established to help curb some of the laws and
regulations that lead to escalating expenses for school
districts and local government.
Certain costs are exempt from the cap, such as increases to the
state pension system above two percent of payroll, capital
construction projects, some court judgments and successful tax
assessment challenges. Districts are also allowed to “bank”
unused portions of their cap from subsequent years. Combine the
possible permutations of the law with changing equalization
rates and residents might receive a property tax bill that does
not match their expectations of a two-percent tax cap.
“How does this state have the expertise to tell local school
districts how to raise their money?” Timbs asks. “A tax cap only
underscores that the long-standing inequity in education aid for
most, if not all, upstate school systems vs. the high
wealth/high income school districts in other parts of the state
will continue to grow.”
The tax cap will be a major factor in the coming years that
could force more difficult decisions like what local school
districts have weighed in the last few budget cycles, according
to Dr. Michel.
“We are looking diligently for the answers,” Dr. Michel said.
“These are difficult fiscal times for our taxpayers and moving
ahead our districts must continue to focus on balancing the
needs of our students with our communities’ ability to pay.”
The Mohawk-Sacandaga School Boards Association represents the
school boards of HFM BOCES 15 component school districts -
Amsterdam, Broadalbin-Perth, Canajoharie, Edinburg,
Fonda-Fultonville, Fort Plain, Gloversville, Johnstown, Lake
Pleasant, Mayfield, Northville, Piseco, St. Johnsville, Wells,
and Wheelerville.
HFM BOCES is located at 2755 State Highway 67, Johnstown, NY.
Parking and the entrance for the conference center is on the
east side, adjacent to Fulton-Montgomery Community College. |
