Archive: News

In reading your recent article about the school board budget, I was surprised to see that the business administrator stated that "even if the budget remains at zero taxes will go up for most people, because assessments have continued to go up." That statement perpetuates the myth that assessments affect overall taxes. In fact,  the taxes that people pay in aggregate are determined solely by the taxing body (e.g., the BOE). The assessments affect the distribution of the tax payments, but not the total.

In fact, if the school tax levy stayed the same, all of our assessments could triple overnight, and our school taxes would not rise at all because our assessment values would remain proportionally the same.

The bottom line is that taxpayers need to keep in mind that the total school taxes in the district are determined solely by the BOE and the levy that results from the budget it proposes. If we have a problem with rising school taxes, we need to look at the BOE's decisions, rather than blaming assessment values.

Editor's reply: Larry Driscoll noted that if your tax assessment goes up that your individual taxes go up, not that the overall tax levy goes up. He wasn't trying to put the blame on the tax assessment. He did blame rising costs -- I listed the key ones that he mentioned in the article. You are quite right that if the tax levey remains the same, all things being equal taxes don't go up. Mia culpa - it was the way I worded "This will be a hit to most taxpayers..." not what Mr. Driscoll said. He said that if the levy remains zero for an individual and that individual's assessment goes up, that individual pays more. He was noting that assessments have been going up for most people recently. That's what I get for using "This" instead of "A 6% or higher tax rise..."

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