Many Stockbridge residents were incredulous when they opened their property tax bills last week and saw their education tax rate had jumped a whopping 18%.
They may have been right not to believe their eyes.
State and local officials both say they think it’s likely a data entry error has caused the town’s homestead education property tax rate to jump to $1.83 per $100 in property value, one of the highest in the state.
Carl Groppe, the chair of the Rochester-Stockbridge Unified School District board, said hunting down data in the district, which tuitions students out for certain grades, has traditionally been difficult.
“It’s always been kind of finicky process and apparently this year it’s been even more convoluted,” he said.
Brad James, the finance manager at the Vermont Agency of Education, said Monday he would be surprised if the tax bills were correct.
“I’m not 100% sure what’s going on there,” he said.
Local school districts have struggled to adjust to a new data reporting system rolled out by the education agency last year. Problems with the new Statewide Longitudinal Data System has created a slew of downstream problems: it’s delayed the release of test scores (which still aren’t out) and complicated the federal-mandated identification of struggling schools. James said trouble with the new system appeared to be compounded in the district by turnover in their business office.
Residential property taxes go up or down depending on how much a school district spends per pupil. All other things being equal, when student counts go down, the tax rate bumps up. James speculated an incorrect data entry had artificially lowered the district’s pupil count.
Groppe said Tuesday James and the school district’s business manager, Tara Weatherell, were combing through the data that day to figure out if the numbers were right. As for what Stockbridge taxpayers ought to do with the bill they just received, Groppe noted it wasn’t due until mid-August. The school board hopes to have the matter cleared up before then, he said.
“In our opinion, the worst thing we can do is try and answer a question when we don’t know,” Groppe said.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the state, tax rates still weren’t set in 28 towns as of Monday, according to officials with the Vermont Department of Taxes. Ten towns are still going through a reappraisal, but the majority of delays are related to late school district mergers under Act 46.
