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CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. Voters in the Croton-Harmon School District approved the districts proposed $43.3 million budget and a school bus proposition worth $335,000, and re-elected two incumbent board members.
Were very thankful to the voters of the Croton-Harmon community for supporting our schools, said Superintendent of Croton-Harmon Schools, Edward Fuhrman. "We never take any of our budget votes for granted," he said.
Voters approved the Croton-Harmon School District budget with 592 "yes" votes, and 215 "no" votes.
The dollar amount of Croton-Harmons proposed budget decreased by $474,435, or 1.1 percent. Despite the dollar amount decrease, the portion of the districts budget to be paid for through local property taxes, the tax levy, increases by 0.61 percent in the proposed budget. Although the New York tax cap is generally set at 2 percent, each district uses a complex equation provided by the state to calculate an individual tax levy cap. Crotons is capped at 0.61 percent.
For the Town of Cortlandt, the tax rate will increase an estimated 1 percent, to $1,102 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
District officials said tax rates only can be estimated because the outcome of a number of tax certiorari cases will not be known for some months. Tax certiorari cases arise from tax assessment grievances. Since the beginning of the recession, the cases most commonly challenge that tax assessments are overvalued. For school districts, the most impactful of these tax certiorari cases are from commercial real estate, or multi-family dwellings, such as condominium complexes. Officials said the outcome of these cases will likely be known in August.
A proposition for four new school buses at a cost of $335,000 was also approved, by 563 "yes" votes and 241 "no" votes. The buses will be financed through bond anticipation notes.
The Croton-Harmon Free Library budget of $782,097 was approved with 604 "yes" votes and 195 "no" votes.
Two incumbent Board of Education members were also re-elected. Andrea Furey and Guiseppina Miller ran unopposed, and received 630 and 635 votes respectively. A total of 821 residents voted.
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