Can Public Officials and the Media Accurately Report on Budgets and Tax Increases?

It is very important to taxpayers today for our public officials, as well as the media, to accurately report budget and tax information.

Piermont starts its budget process this month resulting in a tentative budget by the end of March which becomes a public document. After public hearings, the final budget is approved before May 1 for the next fiscal year.

Shortly after the tentative budget is available, the media reports on it with information supplied by the budget officer. From this information I expect to be informed what my tax bill, mailed around June 1, will say. The report never lets me or any Piermont taxpayer know what to expect on their next tax bill.

The report spotlights the new tax rate comparing it to last year's rate as a percent (%) increase and goes no further. My tax bill will multiply the tax rate per $1,000 times my assessed value to arrive at how much I owe in village taxes.

For the fiscal year ending 5/31/2011, it was correctly reported that the tax rate for residential property increased almost 13 percent, leading most Piermonters to believe that would be the percentage increase in their village taxes. In fact, the average homeowner paid 6.46 percent more in village taxes than the year before, due primarily to a 5.25 percent average reduction in residential assessments.

In the previous fiscal year, the total village taxes collected from homeowners were $3,036,528. In the present fiscal year the amount is $3,232,605, an increase of 6.46 percent. If village officials and the media had reported these numbers, Piermont taxpayers would have know what to expect on the next tax bill.

—Fred Devan, Chair of Piermont's Independent Budget Committee