The majority of Fayetteville-Manlius School District property owners will see their 2022 tax rate decrease 9.16% because of a significant increase in taxable values and growth in the district’s tax base.
The Fayetteville-Manlius Board of Education adopted the 2022 tax levy—the amount of revenue to support the budget raised through school taxes—at its Aug. 8 regular meeting. The final tax rates decreased in four of the five towns within the district.
Tax rates vary from town-to-town because every summer the state assigns an equalization rate for each town that creates an assessment value equal to its full market value. This process is intended to ensure that each town pays its fair share of school taxes based on the town’s fair market value.
The school district does not have any control over property assessments or equalization rates. The district and its residents do control the property tax levy, and in May, voters approved a spending plan of $98,930,930 that included a tax levy of $67,521,063, which represented a 1.8% increase.
Even with the tax levy increase, tax rates are significantly lower in four of the five towns that comprise the school district.
The tax rate the board established Aug. 8 for the town of Manlius, which makes up 81% of the district, is a decrease of 9.16%. That translates to a tax rate of $22.94 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The final tax rates for the other four towns within the district are as follows:
- Cazenovia: tax rate decrease of 3.17% and a corresponding tax rate of $25.20 per $1,000 of assessed value;
- DeWitt: tax rate decrease of 9.16% and a corresponding tax rate of $22.93 per $1,000 of assessed value;
- Pompey: tax rate increase of 3.65% and a corresponding tax rate of $29.40 per $1,000 of assessed value; and
- Sullivan: tax rate decrease of 1.21% and a corresponding tax rate of $28.66 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Assessment and equalization rate questions should be directed to the appropriate town assessor.