Editor’s Note: Because of responses to his first letter proposing an amended agreement between the towns of Stockbridge, West Stockbridge and Great Barrington comprising the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, Chip Elitzer of Great Barrington has sent a second dispatch to the School Committee, clarifying and amplifying his proposal. In essence, Elitzer is recommending that what each town pays the school district be based upon assessed property values rather than number of students. His proposal is explained here. In his letter, below, he includes estimates of what district assessments for each town would be.
Dear School Committee:
Several of you have asked me what the impact on the District’s FY 2016 Operating and Capital Budget would have been if the proposed amendment to allocate the District budget to the three towns based on assessed property value rather than on resident students had already been in effect. Even though the effective date is not until FY 2017 if the amendment is approved by all three towns at their annual town meetings this May (and subject to your voting to place it on the town meeting warrants), it is a good question that is answered in the attached spreadsheet.
The first table shows the breakdown of total assessed property value among the three towns (above). The second table shows the pro forma impact of the proposed allocation change under three scenarios.
The first column (“Actual”) in the second table shows how the $19,225,000 total District assessment for FY 2016 will be allocated to the three towns. Great Barrington will pay 70.35 percent at an effective tax rate (per thousand of assessed property value) of $9.87, Stockbridge will pay 14.52 percent at a tax rate of $3.28, and West Stockbridge will pay 15.13 percent at a tax rate of $7.85.
The second column (“Flat Budget”) shows how that allocation would have changed if the total District assessment to the three towns stayed at $19,225,000, but the basis for allocation had been assessed property value rather than pupil headcount. In that scenario, all taxpayers in the District would be paying the same rate per thousand ($7.42). As shown in the third column, that would cause GB taxpayers to pay $3,355,000 less than they will actually pay, Stockbridge taxpayers to pay $3,515,000 more, and West Stockbridge taxpayers to pay $160,000 less.
The fourth column (“Flat GB”) and fifth column show how much more the District would have available for its budget if all taxpayers in the District were taxed at the same rate per thousand to support the District budget as GB residents actually will be ($9.87): $6,344,000 more, of which $5,596,000 would come from Stockbridge and $747,000 from West Stockbridge.
The sixth column (“Flat WS”) and seventh column show how much more the District would have available for its budget if all taxpayers in the District were taxed at the same rate to support the District as West Stockbridge residents actually will be ($7.85): $1,118,000 more, which is the netting out of Stockbridge’s $3,882,000 increase and GB’s $2,764,000 decrease.
As I said in my first letter to you, I’m not trying to minimize the political difficulty of my proposal, given the impact that it would have on Stockbridge taxpayers if adopted, and which adoption would require Stockbridge town meeting approval.
Chip Elitzer
Great Barrington
