At its meeting on August 18, 2016, the North Colonie Board of Education adopted the school tax levy for 2016-17.
Using the final assessment figures provided by the Town of Colonie and the tax levy as adopted by the Board of Education, the resulting tax rate is $25.20259 per $1,000 of taxable value. This represents an increase of 0.67 percent. During the district’s budget deliberations, a tax rate increase of 0.6 percent was estimated. At that time, the preliminary taxable values provided by the local assessor were slightly higher than what the final taxable values came in at. On a $250,000 taxable value home, the increase is $43.14 a year.
“Growth in taxable values continues to minimize the tax rate impact upon the taxpayers within the District”, said Assistant Superintendent for Business, William Furlong.
The district will be adjusting the tax levy downward by $130,550. This amount reflects prior year adjustments to agricultural and other property exemptions over the past three years. While a 2.4 percent tax levy increase was budgeted, the adjusted tax levy equals a 2.22 percent increase.
This tax rate equates to a true-value tax rate of $17.01, the second lowest among the Suburban Council districts. Because assessment practices vary from town to town, the best way to compare communities’ school tax rates is to look at their “true-value” tax rate—i.e., what the tax rate would be if assessments of all properties were maintained at 100 percent of market value.
For more information about the 2016-17 school tax rate, please contact the North Colonie School District Business Office at 785-8591.
Glossary of helpful terms:
Tax Levy = the total amount of tax collected by the school district as establish and limited by NYS Law.
Tax Rate = the actual rate per thousand that is paid by individual taxpayers.
Assessed Value = the value that is placed on the property by the local town assessor.
Taxable Value = the assessed value less any exemptions (i.e. the STAR Exemption)