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The Lansing Board of Education approved the current tax role Monday and authorized the $20,368,192 tax levy for the 2020-21 school year.  The tax rate for the upcoming school tax bill is $21.22 per $1,000 of assessed property value.  Lansing School Business Administrator Kate Heath said that a higher than anticipated district assessment will mean a slightly lower tax rate than was anticipated when the budget was passed.  For property taxpayers that will mean $23.23 more than last year on a $100,000 house, or $46.46 more on a $200,000 house, assuming your assessment has not changed.

"Our original projections in May where the projected tax levy of $20,368,192, and that was with projected assessed values at $960,000,000" she said. "That gave us a projected tax rate of $21.22 per thousand. So we got the actual, final assessed rolls with their final values today. Our assessed values were a little bit higher than anticipated at $964,661,000. And that adjusts our tax rate to $21.11574 per thousand. So the tax rate is a little bit less than we were anticipating."

Total taxes on a $100,000 will be 2,111.57 or $4,223.14 for a $200,000 house.  The total district assessment is $964,661,018, which is $26,916,201 higher than last year, a 2.87 rise.  The tax levy is 4.03% higher than last year.  The tax rate is .2323 higher than last year, or 1.11% more.

Tax bills are typically mailed at the end of August.  Taxpayers have until the end of September to pay the tax without penalty, or may pay in two installments if they pay an additional 2%.  The second installment is due by November 2nd.  Unpaid taxes are paid to the school district by Tompkins County, which then recovers the money.

Heath said the method of collecting taxes is different this year, though for taxpayers the biggest difference will be the address to send payments to.

"Tax collection will look a little bit different this year, because we are no longer collecting through TST BOCES," Heath told the Board of Education. "As we have done in the past, Tompkins Trust Company will continue to handle part of our tax collection. All payments will be mailed to lockbox -- at an address on the tax bill -- or payments can be made in person at any Tompkins Trust Company branch. We will also be offering online payment, and that can be made with a credit card or with an electronic check. So that process will be a little bit different."

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