Allow Scarsdale Residents To Pay School Taxes In Two Installments

Two equal installment payments , penalty and interest free is an excellent idea for tax strapped Scarsdale taxpayers !!! Bob and Terri Harrison

Pretty sad that the village thinks the best way to raise revenue is to extort it from those who are suffering.

Please allow 2 payments for the school tax.

please allow us to pay our school taxes in two installments

This would be beneficial to many residents. So, I think it is an excellent idea.

This is an excellent idea. The installment plan billing for school taxes will be a big help with residents' cash flow and tax planning. There's a reason most towns and villages in Westchester County adopted this type of school tax billing a long time ago for their residents - they actually care about their residents.

Fully support this petition.

I've lived in Scarsdale for 19 years. I'm upset that until very recently, I didn't learn that the option has long existed for two equal installment payment of our school taxes, and that our Village leaders have not implemented this payment plan for the benefit of our residents. After all, isn't it their job to look out always for our best interests? The Village Board (acting as the Town Board) can do this on its own, pursuant to the Westchester County Code, without needing School Board approval or State approval. The School Administration has investigated the issue at my request and determined that any impacts on the District would be slight. Assistant Superintendent Mattey stated that theoretically the District might have a cash flow issue by only getting 1/2 the tax levy at the end of September and the rest at the end of January. But the cash needs of the District are not so front-end loaded as to cause any cash flow problem. The proposed tax levy for 2020/2021 is $151.7 million. $75.9 million would be paid over to the District by early October and the balance by early February. I can't fathom that the cash flow needs of the District, which starts running at full steam at the beginning of September, would ever come close to exhausting the 50% of the tax levy it would receive by early October just four months later when the District receives the 2nd half of the tax levy. Even in the extraordinarily unlikely event that a cash flow issue might arise, the District could issue a very short duration tax anticipation note to cover the gap at very little cost. The second "cost" to the District is the foregone interest to the District for the four month period for the 50% of the tax levy that now wouldn't be due until January 30. Currently, interest rates are just a hair over zero. The foregone interest to the District is minuscule. More importantly, the moral question is why should the District receive taxpayer money earlier than it actually needs

Good idea! Might even make sense permanently, as schools are not assuming a great deal of interest income by holding our tax money prior to spending....

This is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Our residents need empathy and help from the Scarsdale Village Board.

This is the worst economic crisis, since the Great Depression. Our residents need empathy and help from the Village Board

This would be very helpful.

please allow to pay school taxes in two installments

Please help!

Today's unemployment number was the worst since the Great Depression and Scarsdale residents are not immune. The Voters Choice Party has been your voice in arguing forcefully for property tax reductions in this crisis (unfortunately our efforts have been rebuffed by the Scarsdale tax collectors) and we have introduced this installment proposition to help our homeowners avoid cash flow problems to the extent possible. We are in this fight for you to WIN. Please stand with us in this effort.

Since it firs not appear that there is any concern about retaining those folks who no longer use the schools by lowering taxes a bit at least you can consider installments.

GREAT IDEA!

This seems like a reasonable course of action that should not severely impact the school system's cash flow nor is there much to be gained in a low interest environment from collecting all of the taxes up front. Perhaps there is some additional administrative overhead to send out two bills instead of one but considering the infrastructure is already in place for county, village, school and three water bill mailings every year, I can't imagine the one additional mailing would cost much more that $5K to $10K in materials and labor. Please consider this as many residents are in fact suffering sudden and severe cash flow problems at home. Thank you.