By Carol P. Bartold, Senior Reporter

Mar. 29, 2017:  Bronxville property owners will be asked to approve an increase of approximately $640,000 in the annual property tax levy, from approximately $40.9 million to just over $41.5 million, to fund the 2017-2018 Bronxville School budget.

The $47.1 million budget, adopted by the Bronxville Board of Education at its March 16 meeting, represents a 1.17 percent increase over the current academic year’s budget of approximately $46.6 and represents a 1.57 percent tax levy increase. The budget is only $12,140 below the allowable state permitted tax increase cap of 1.6 percent.

New York State’s property tax cap limits the amount by which school districts can increase the tax levy to the lower of 2 percent and the rate of inflation.

“A lot of the drama in this process has been taken away by the tax cap,” said Dan Carlin, assistant superintendent for business. “The board knew where we had to come in with this budget.”

Carlin went on to explain that the increase in the tax levy needed to fund the 2017-2018 budget was driven by cost increases of around $1.3 million, with salaries, private school transportation costs, and health insurance premiums making up the bulk of those anticipated higher expenditures.

Reduced required pension contributions, Carlin said, will help to offset those increased costs. Retirement incentive costs, incurred for the current budget, will not be paid during 2017-2018.

The board decided to allocate $500,000 from the expected 2016-2017 surplus to reduce the property tax levy increase in 2017-2018. Board president Jeffrey Rohr commented that without the offset, property owners could expect to see a 2.8 percent increase in the tax levy instead of the proposed 1.57 percent.

“The board has done a good job in decreasing that offset over the past three years,” Rohr stated. He pointed out that, when first faced with the 2 percent tax cap, the district used $1.05 million of reserves to decrease the tax levy. For 2016-2017, $580,000 was used.

The district expects to receive approximately $5.1 million in revenues from sources other than property tax, including about $2.4 million in New York State Education Department State Aid, $1.425 million in tuition, $450,000 in reimbursements for health services the district is required to provide to village private schools, and $350,000 in county property taxes on properties that border on the village.

The annual budget vote and board election will be held on Tuesday, May 16, in the Blue Gym at The Bronxville School.

The Bronxville Board of Education will meet on Tuesday, April 18, in the school's multipurpose room.

Pictured here:  The façade of The Bronxville School (top) and Dan Carlin, assistant superintendent for business. 

Photos by A. Warner