LAKE PLACID — Using a worksheet, the formula used to calculate the 2 percent property-tax cap was spelled out at a Lake Placid School Board meeting.
The state law passed last year does not mean the final tax-levy increase at area schools will necessarily sit at or below 2 percent, which could prove confusing to voters.
GROWTH FACTORS
Lake Placid School District officials brought Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES Business Manager Susan Perkins to the regular meeting Tuesday night to explain how the formula works for budget planning.
It's a complex calculation, one that builds from a tax-base growth factor assigned to each district by the State Comptroller's Office.
The growth factor for schools reflects changes in a district's true property value, Perkins explained.
EXEMPTIONS
The growth factor is first multiplied by the current tax levy, then items such as current-year payments in lieu of taxes are added to it.
Taxes raised for exemptions in the current school year — such as tort or liability claims — are subtracted from that total.
The school also can claim exemptions for bus leasing and possibly garage space and fuel — the final list of exemptions has not been released yet by the state.
The process arrives at an adjusted prior-year levy, Perkins told the board and a room full of parents and teachers. And only then it is multiplied to see if it fits the 2 percent limit.
That calculation could push a final levy for the 2012-13 school year above 2 percent, which might leave taxpayers confused as they head to the polls in May, Perkins said.
It is not as simple as drawing a fiscal line at 2 percent, a tax-cap misnomer that some state officials have said is deceptively oversimplified.
VOTE MANDATES
School officials are concerned the process might anger voters who expect to see a tax-levy increase at or below 2 percent.
But the adjusted prior-year levy is what district officials will work with in crunching budget numbers this year.
Under the new state tax cap passed in June, any school district needing to step beyond the 2 percent multiplier would have to ask taxpayers first and achieve 60 percent "super-majority" approval.
CARRY OVER
It is a complex computation process, one that Perkins said districts would have to explain to their voters in the coming weeks via civic group meetings, presentations and budget workshops.
And the process could become even more complex next year, when schools that don't use a full 2 percent limit are allowed to "carry over" the difference and apply it to future budgets.
A tax levy that does not step over the 2 percent multiplier edge still needs approval of more than 50 percent of voters.
Email Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
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