Ulster will pay out over $20 million to make up school district taxes
KINGSTON – Ulster County can expect to lay out $22 million to local school districts for unpaid school taxes in the 2009-2010 academic year. The money will make the districts whole and cover the amount that goes unpaid by district residents. The county shelled out $20.8 million in unpaid school taxes for the 2008-2009 school year.
County Comptroller Elliot Auerbach, in his second “By the Numbers” report, said unpaid school taxes are expected to climb by over 50 percent since 2006-2007.
“It’s a trend that we see moving upward, in fact since 2006, it’s been on the increase to the tune of 53 percent,” he said. “We project in April 2010 that it will be $22 million. This past year it was $20 million, and that includes not only unpaid taxes from the schools’ original warrant, but monies each school district through state land.”
Auerbach said in better financial times this was less of a burden on the county.
It is a state requirement that counties make up the difference.
Copyright © 2009 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc.
2 comments:
There has to be a better way then 13 separate political subdivisions i.e. school districts operating in their own merry way at the expense of the individual property owner.
We're not seeing the "big picture". That is the exodus of UC residents to the southern states. Taxes are cheaper and more affordable. But who in government wants to relinquish their autonomy for the sake of lower taxation?
As the "exodus" of poor/cheap people continues, our overall costs will drop as the quality increases. One day soon, I hope, the school boards will be rid of religious leaders whose goals invariably are at odds with the goal of educating children. Failure of our schools to teach relevant skills, has cost too many jobs here in this county and the residents least likely to foot the bill are to blame. When a company presents their needs to a district, as Hydro did, a Sunday school teaching administrator failed to heed their warning. Bye-bye jobs, religious nepotism wins again.
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