Tax rates vary for Albion school district due to some towns holding off reassessments

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 August 2023 at 11:28 am

Rate is about $4 lower for towns that completed revaluations

ALBION – Property owners where towns have completed reassessments will see a sharp decline in their school tax rate in the Albion school district.

The Albion Board of Education approved the final tax warrant on Monday. The district isn’t increasing the tax levy again this year. It remains at $8,449,039. This is the 15th time in the past 17 years that the levy has either stayed the same or gone down.

But not all towns have the same tax rate because some towns have put off town-wide reassessments or revaluations.

Carlton, Kendall, Ridgeway and Shelby all are doing the reassessments this year. Barre and Clarendon did them last year, while four other towns – Albion, Gaines, Murray and Yates are waiting. Some town officials was to see if the real estate sales boom will cool off.

For towns that haven’t done town-wide reassessments, the state uses equalization rates to try to make sure those property owners are paying their fair share of the taxes.

Carlton, Kendall, Ridgeway and Elba all did townwide reassessments this year. Their total assessed values went up and their tax rates went down to $10.87 per $1,000 of assessed property. Carlton’s school tax rate was $14.63 a year ago.

Albion and Gaines, which are now four years without a town-wide reassessment, will have their property values billed at a $14.69-rate per $1,000 of assessed property.

The tax warrant approved by the board on Monday includes the following for the towns in the Albion school district:

Albion, 74 percent equalization rate; $14.69 school tax rate; $1.14 library tax rate ($15.83 total)
Barre, 90 percent equalization rate; $12.08 school tax rate; 94-cent library tax rate ($13.02 total)
Carlton, 100 percent equalization rate; $10.87 school tax rate; 84-cent library tax rate ($11.71 total)
Gaines, 74 percent equalization rate; $14.69 school tax rate; $1.14 library tax rate ($15.83 total)
Kendall, 100 percent equalization rate; $10.87 school tax rate; 84-cent library tax rate ($11.71 total)
Murray, 70 percent equalization rate; $15.53 school tax rate; $1.20 library tax rate ($16.73 total)
Ridgeway, 100 percent equalization rate; $10.87 school tax rate; 84-cent library tax rate ($11.71 total)
Elba (Genesee County), 100 percent equalization rate, $10.87 school tax rate; 84-cent library tax rate ($11.71 total)

The district has a total assessed value of $632.2 million. That includes $236.2 million in the Town of Albion, $145.7 million in Carlton, $135.7 million in Gaines, $106.7 million in Barre, $6.0 million in Murray, $1.2 million in Kendall and $251,914 in Ridgeway.

The 2022 tax rates included:

Albion – $14.63 school, $1.12 library ($15.75 total)
Barre – $12.14 school, 93 cents library ($13.07 total)
Carlton – $14.63 school, $1.12 library ($15.75 total)
Gaines – $14.63 school, $1.12 library ($15.75 total)
Kendall – $14.99 school, $1.15 library ($16.14 total)
Murray – $15.57 school, $1.20 library ($16.77 total)
Ridgeway – $15.98 school, $1.23 library ($17.21 total)
Elba, $12.14 school, 93 cents library ($13.07 total)

Board also approves many appointments for 2023-24 school year

The Board of Education on Monday approved the following appointments:

Jessica Beal as Committee on Special Education chairperson
Samuel Levine as English 7-12 teacher at high school
Winter Dumont as ESOL teacher (English for speakers of other languages) at the elementary school
Shawn Haseley as high school social studies teacher
William Nice as cleaner
Barbara Carpenter as teacher aide at high school
Santino Morales as teacher aide at high school
Jessica Giangregorio as teacher aide at elementary school
Stacie Castricone as teacher aide at elementary school
Giovaneth Kirsch as teacher aide at elementary school

The following extracurricular appointments were approved:

Kailey Winans and Elliott Michki as high school play and musical directors

The following extracurricular athletic appointments were made:

Sarah McCormick, fall athletic ticket manager
Michael Sanders, assistant varsity football coach
Daniel Ward, assistant JV football coach
Chad Owen, JV head football coach
Chase Hall, modified football coach
Jami Allport, varsity/JV cheerleading coach