Board Approves School District Tax Rate Increase

The Smithtown School Board voted on Oct. 26 to pass a portion of an unexpected $1.3 million budget gap back to taxpayers.

Back in May, voters approved the school district's budget of $211,486,370, which reflected an increase of .11 percent over the previous year. At the time, the school district advertised that with that budget, homeowners would be looking at a 1.66 percent tax rate increase. However, they will now be asked to pay 2.72 percent more.

"We always try to give the best estimate that we can," said Joan Niles, assistant superintendent for instruction and finance for the Smithtown School District. "We can only go on information we have at the time of the vote," she said.

The district found itself in the red earlier this month after receiving additional budget information regarding funding from the state and town.

For starters, the district was informed that its state aid had been cut by nearly $400,000. 

A second blow was a one percent reduction in the state's STAR reimbursement to the school district and a third hit came in the form of a decrease in the town's assessment rolls.

"We have no control over assessments," Niles said.  "We've been fairly lucky in the past, but there was a big loss this year."

To make up for the loss, school board members agreed to ask homeowners to only absorb the loss of funds from town tax assessments. To foot the bill forthe lack of money from the state and the STAR rebate program, the board opted to pull $686,000 from the district's surplus budget.   

If the district passed the entire deficit to taxpayers, the tax rate would increase to over 3 percent rather than 2.72 percent.

In dollars, the new increase equates to $2.72 per $100 assessed value for homes in Smithtown.  The average homeowner with a home assessed at $6,000, will now be asked to pay $209.56 rather than $127.84.

According to Peter Johnson, town assessor, assessments in town are down by less than one percent. While one percent may not seem like a large percentage, Johnson said, "When you are talking about a large budget, one percent is a lot."

One percent he said, equates to about a million dollars.

Johnson explained that the drop in assessments is a reflection of tax grievances filled back in May, as well as the real estate market.  

"It indicates to me that the real estate market has flattened out," Johnson said.