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District mulls budget, tax cap for 2025-26 school year

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By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

If the school district proposes a 2025-26 budget at the anticipated maximum tax cap of 3.13%, these are the impacts on individual homeowners for a property assessed at $100,000. Courtesy of RCS Central School District

RAVENA-COEYMANS-SELKIRK — While the numbers are preliminary and not yet finalized, the RCS school district may be looking at a tax cap in the neighborhood of 3.13% for the upcoming 2025-26 school year.

District officials unveiled a birds-eye view of the budget process at the Jan. 22 meeting of the board of education.

District Superintendent Dr. Brian Bailey opened the discussion with a look at enrollment numbers in the district, which have been on the decline.

“When I first came to the district in 2010, the high school had over 630 students in it. Just before the pandemic it had gone all the way down to just under 500,” Bailey told the board of education. “When we look at statistics, birth rates, and population from 2014-15 to 2024-25, we’ve lost about 160 students overall.”

Over the past three years, RCS High School saw a decline of 3.54%, the middle school saw a 2.72% reduction in student population, and A.W. Becker Elementary School saw a 0.72% decline. The only school that increased the number of students was Pieter B. Coeymans Elementary School, which realized an increase of 4.55% in its enrollment.

The declining student population mirrors reductions that are being seen statewide across New York, Bailey said.

As student enrollment has declined, the poverty rate and the number of students requiring special education has gone up.

“Unfortunately, our poverty rate has continued to rise in the community,” Bailey said. “Our students with disabilities have gradually gone up. I will tell you that 20% (for special education) is not recognized as being good in New York state. They like to see numbers of 12, 13, 14%.”

Enrollment declines also impact state funding.

“Enrollment is very key,” said School Business Administrator Jesse Boehme. “It is one of our biggest indicators for foundation aid, and foundation aid is our biggest state aid funding, so dropping enrollment does have an effect on that.”

While the numbers are preliminary and far from finalized, Boehme estimated that the district’s tax cap for the coming school year could be in the neighborhood of 3.13%.

“Right now, with the current information that we have, and I don’t expect it to swing that much, we’re looking at a tax levy limit of 3.13%,” Boehme said.

Over the coming weeks, the board will look at the budget in greater detail and will have to consider the tax rate.

If the tax cap comes in at the projected 3.13% and the board proposes an increase of that amount in the tax rate, it would raise an additional $886,522 for the school budget compared to last year. For individual homeowners with a property assessed at $100,000, the increase in their tax bill would differ depending on the town in which they live.

For Coeymans homeowners, their tax bill would go up by $56.27 for the year, or a $4.69 monthly increase. Bethlehem taxpayers would see an annual increase of $64.20, with a $5.35 monthly hike. New Baltimore property owners would see a $111.16 increase per year, or $9.26 monthly, while New Scotland taxpayers would see a $65.11 annual increase in their tax bill, or $5.43 per month.

The New Baltimore rate is substantially higher than the other three municipalities because the town has not had a reassessment conducted in a long time.

“New Baltimore has a much higher rate and that’s because they haven’t done a reassessment in many years, so a lot of the values in that community are much lower than the market value is, so the state puts in equalization rates and these rates will change the individual’s rates to make it a little bit more even,” Boehme said.

One factor that is expected to have a significant impact on the tax levy next year is a PILOT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes, for the Champlain Hudson Power Express Line, a massive infrastructure project that is installing utility lines to transfer renewable energy from Canada down to New York City. The line runs through Coeymans and Ravena, and in exchange the school district is one of the recipients of a PILOT from the company.

The district will begin getting a $1.2 million payment from the company next year, and it is expected to increase by $60,000 every year for the next 30 years.

The RCS district also received good news from the state budget proposal unveiled last week by Gov. Kathy Hochul. As the numbers currently stand, the district would receive an 8.86% increase in its foundation aid — the largest chunk of state aid the district receives.

“That is significantly higher than what I was expecting,” Boehme said. “That was a great number to see.”

The state budget has not been finalized, so the numbers are preliminary.

The RCS Board of Education continues to work on the budget, which will ultimately go before the voters in the annual budget vote on May 20.

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