The hearing and adoption for the BOE budget is
tomorrow night at 6:30 PM.
For months, Marc Capizzi told the Board that the
budget would result in an $8 tax increase for the average Lodi taxpayer.
Joe Leto frequently repeated at public meetings that
the budget would only raise taxes $8.
Just a few hours ago, I discovered that this all
appears to be a lie.
I requested that our Business Administrator explain
this budget’s impact on your tax bill during the budget presentation. No tax explanation was planned.
I was told that there is NO tax increase. You can look at the budget information I
posted above.
Those figures were never revised to reflect the
additional state aid Lodi received over the summer which had lowered the levy.
Here
are the right figures:
2018-2019 Local Tax Levy:
$38,305,777
2019-2020 Local Tax Levy:
$39,509,273
Increase: $1,203,496 or 3.14%
Let’s take a house assessed at $400,000. Using Lodi’s 2018 tax rate of 3.246, you
would be paying $12,984 in property taxes.
The BOE portion used to be 64%.
So your school taxes would be $8,309.76.
If the 3.14% school tax increase were to be approved tomorrow night,
your school taxes would increase to $8,570.69.
That would be a $260.93 increase in school taxes alone. The mayor and council just posted a public
notice that they are raising municipal taxes.
County taxes are also going up.
Some board members planned on telling the public
tomorrow night that there would be NO tax increase. In reality, the Board would be raising your
taxes hundreds of dollars at a time when the state is giving us $1,683,523 more
in aid (on top off the millions more we received the last two years).
We would all look like fools. People would call us liars.
Unless there is an explanation for this by tomorrow,
we were clearly lied to for months. Lodi
deserves better.
Is this the reason Marc Capizzi left? Timing is suspect.
Is this the reason Marc Capizzi left? Timing is suspect.
