Property owners in the Batavia City School District -- still trying to come to grips with hefty increases in their assessments earlier this year – can take some solace with news that the school tax rate for 2021-22 is decreasing by almost 10 percent.
Scott Rozanski, Batavia schools’ business administrator, today informed The Batavian that the tax rate for the coming school year has been set at $19.23 per thousand of assessed value – down $2.10, or 9.84 percent, from the 2020-21 rate of $21.33.
On Thursday, the Batavia CSD board of education voted to accept the tax warrant and rate determination.
Rozanski also pointed out that the tax rate in 2020-21 was about 1 percent less than the 2019-20 figure.
“That’s two years of no direct impact (on taxes) from the school,” he said.
He did, however, acknowledge the change in assessments, indicating the average increase was 10.85 percent.
“We don’t control property values, nor the equalization rate which are both used to calculate the tax rate and can fluctuate each year,” he reported.
He said the district did realize about $750,000 more of a surplus from the previous year “so we added that to the refund back to the taxpayers.”
“With all of the federal stimulus funds, we were assisted on the revenue side,” Rozanski said, noting that the district received $2.4 million for COVID relief this year. “Without that, we would have had to make more cuts or (without cutting any positions) increase the levy by about 12 percent.”
Going forward, he said it’s a bit premature to project, but doesn’t think it will be “a concern in the near future.”
The district budget for 2021-22 is $52,096,661, Rozanski said. Its fund balance currently is at the maximum 4 percent, or about $2.1 million.
