The adoption of a proposed 2021-2022 school budget for Batavia nearly brought Board of Education President Alice Ann Benedict to tears on Monday night.
She wasn't upset. If anything, she was overjoyed.
The budget doesn't increase the district's tax levy one penny over the 2020-21 budget. With rising property values and commercial properties that were previously covered by tax abatements known as PILOTs* rolling out of those programs, most property owners should see the education portion of their property taxes going down next year.
Superintendent Anibal Soler said a rough guess right now is that a home assessed at $100,000 will pay $64 less in school taxes.
He called that a win for the community and in remarks at the end of the meeting, Benedict agreed and thanked Soler, Business Administrator Scott Rozanski, and the rest of the board of education for their work on the budget.
"I just want to say how pleased I am that we got to zero percent because I think it is quite important for our community," Benedict said before fighting back tears. "This has been a tough year. I just wanted to say I appreciated it."
Rozanski said it was possible to balance the budget because of additional state and federal aid being provided to local school districts.
The tax levy this academic year is $19,493,958 and under the proposed budget will be exactly the same in the coming year.
The total budget will increase from $51,470,726 to $52,096,661, a 1.22-percent increase in spending, which is just below the consumer price index increase of 1.3 percent.
The tax rate based on the proposed levy has not yet been set.
"The tentative PROJECTED tax rate (using the current assessed values) is $20.65," said Rozanski in an email to The Batavian. "This amount WILL change because all the information (assessed values, equalization rates, omitted taxes, and removed exemptions are NOT finalized until the summer. The OFFICIAL tax rate will be calculated in August/September 2021."
There will be a public budget presentation on May 10 and the budget will go before voters on May 18.
*PILOTs -- Payment(s) In Lieu Of Taxes.
