Where Does All The Money Go: School Board Vote Very Taxing On Local Residents

If you’re like most of us wondering WHY you are paying such high property taxes and where exactly your money is going, at least for a few of you, answers may soon be on the way.

According to officials and based on the results of a thorough audit, the Center Moriches School District help back legal financial information from the public in the 2004 school budget vote, keeping residents oblivious to a 40 percent property tax hike.

They note that school officials were more than aware of the hike and its impact on taxes and local residents and that they consciously chose to withhold that imperative information. And, that failure to disclose, forfeited the rights of taxpayers to make an informed decision about the (proposed) budget prior to voting on it.

Based on a law passed by New York State, requiring all school districts to (voluntarily) offer a property tax report form to the public, auditors found that the district did not properly disclose such information and tax figures, listing the levy rate as “n/a”, leading district voters to believe that the 13.7 increase in proposed spending included the tax rate.

The actual tax rate increase however was at 38.4 percent.

And, while the school district admits that the finding “did” exclude necessary information to voters prior to the vote, they suggest that it was not done intentionally.

District officials on the other hand also suggest that auditors rarely used requests for proposal to secure competitive proposals for professional services.

Auditors suggest that the district revise its acquisition policies and practices and offer proper training to its staff and make sure that the tax paying public be provided with all legally required information before the budget vote.