2023-24 Budget Q&As
We invite you to review questions, with answers, sent to us by members of the community.
Q&As on the revised proposed 2023-24 school budget
Watch for this page to be updated with questions. Thank you.
Budget Q&As on the initial proposed school budget
Q. How can I see what the growth in my tax bill has been over the past few years?
A: Property tax bills are public information and anyone can look up any property tax bill. This information can be found on Orange County’s website at https://propertydata.orangecountygov.com/search.aspx
You can then enter your name or address in order to search for your property.Once you select your property from the list, select “Tax Info” in the upper left hand box.You can then click on “Display Historical tax Information”. This will bring you to a list of all the previous tax year information for the property.
Q: Is the district proposing to purchase electric buses in this budget?
A: No. The district is not looking to purchase electric buses in the 23-24 school year. The proposed bus purchases are normal gasoline/diesel buses, just like the other buses currently comprising the district’s fleet.
Q. Will the proposed tax levy cause my property tax bill to double?
A: No. The proposed budget would not result in anyone’s taxes doubling. Ultimately, tax bills will depend on the amount of economic growth within the municipality. In the 21-22 school year the tax levy increased 2.42%, but 3 of the 6 municipalities comprising the MVCSD experienced decreases in their tax rates, with a 4th municipality having a tax rate increase 0.18%. This occurred because of economic growth within the municipalities.
Q. Is this the last year the district plans to purchase buses?
A: No, this is the last year the district intends to purchase 15 new buses. Typically the district would purchase 10-12 buses per year. In the 19-20 and 20-21 school years the district did not purchase any buses. The district has purchased additional buses (15 per year) for the past couple of years in order to make up for the lack of bus purchase for those two years. Next year the district expects to return to the normal amount of buses purchased annually.
Q. Is the district purchasing new buses or used buses?
A: The district is only purchasing brand new buses. The district receives approximately 75% state transportation aid on all bus purchases. After state transportation aid, the cost of a brand new bus to the district is approximately $50,000 to $53,000 each.
Q. What are the budget line items comprising the $243,600 for community service?
A: There are two line items comprising community service. Community Instructional salaries are budgeted at $18,100. This is money allocated to pay for Project Cooperation and Camp Minisink, summer programs related to orienting school kids to their new buildings and summer programs operated by the town. The second budget item is $225,500 that is budgeted to pay for School Resource Officers provided by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (sheriff’s deputies) and the Town of Mount Hope police department (Mount Hope police officer).
Q. Can you explain why the tax rate increased so much last year for the town of Mamakating residents?
A: Last year the Town of Mamakating had a large change to its equalization rate. This is a factor the state uses to try and equalize assessments amongst the various towns throughout New York State. The equalization rate is determined by the NYS Office of Real Property.
Mamakating’s equalization rate was 59.0 in the 2021-22 school year. That factor changed to 45.5 in the 2022-23 school year. That is a 13.50% change in the equalization rate and is the main reason why Mamakating’s tax rate increase was so high (12.62%) compared to other municipalities in the 2022-23 school year. If Mamakating’s equalization rate had not changed in 2022-23 there would have been a 12.75% reduction in tax rates for Mamakating resident’s.
Q. How much have taxes increased in Mamakating since the tax cap has been instituted in New York State?
A: The tax rate for Mamakating residents was $34.432665 per $1,000 taxable assessed value (TAV) in the 2012-13 school year. The tax rate in the 2022-23 school year for Mamakating is $40.404627 per $1,000 TAV. That is an 11 year increase of 17.34%, or an average yearly tax rate increase of 1.58%.
Q. Can you explain how the bus purchase works? Why can’t the district use the money received as aid from the prior years’ bus purchases to purchase new buses in the 23-24 school year?
A: The district finances bus purchases over a 5 year period through the issuance of BAN’s (Bond Anticipation Notes). A BAN is a short-term financing option (1 year) available to school districts. The district initially issues a BAN for the full amount of the bus purchase — the bus vendors want to be paid in full when they deliver new buses to the school district.
So in the 2022-23 school year, the district purchased buses for $2,282,155. We issued a BAN for that amount and paid the bus vendor for the new buses during the 2022-23 school year. At the end of the 2022-23 school year, the district made a $456,431 principal payment toward the buses (one-fifth of the total amount borrowed) plus interest. We then renewed our BAN for another year for a total amount of $1,825,724, essentially borrowing that amount for another year. In the 2023-24 school year, the district will receive transportation aid on the $456,431 principal payment and the calculated assumed interest rate calculated by the state. The district receives approximately 75% aid on the payment — so Minisink will receive approximately $342,323.25 in aid, in 2023-24, based on the principal payment made in 2022-23.
In the 2023-24 school year the district will again make a second payment of $456,431 before renewing the BAN for another year at $1,369,293 — the balance owed for the buses. In this second year we now have aid from the first payment helping fund the payment of the second year “bill.”
This process repeats until the 5th year when the district will make the fifth and final payment of $456,431 in the 2026-27 school year. At this point the buses have been fully paid off, but we will still receive our transportation aid in 2027-28 for the last payment we made in 2026-27.
This process is the same for each year the district buys buses, with the purchases amounts and payments layered on top of each other. After 5 years of buying buses the district will be making the 1st payment on buses recently approved, the 2nd payment on buses purchased the prior year, the third payment on buses purchased two years ago, the fourth payment on buses purchased three years ago and the 5th payment on buses purchased four years ago.
Payments are budgeted each year as an expense and State Aid expected to be received based on prior years’ payments are budgeted as revenues.
