Some Albany homeowners are outraged over a surprise school tax increase they just noticed on their September bills.Gail Cole said, "I'm very mad. This is outrageous."
The Cole Family knows what it's like to live on a budget. They prefer to plan ahead for any household cost increases if they can.
That's why the couple was so upset to get a September Surprise. A 10 percent increase on their Albany School Tax Bill. It came as a shock, because back in May, local voters had only approved a 3.87 percent School Tax hike. Now they're wondering how this could have happened.
"I wish someone would have let us know," Gail Cole said. "They should have told us it was coming, we could have saved some money, budgeted better. We had no idea that they could just do this to us."
But the Assistant Superintendent for Business Affairs with Albany Schools says there was no way to predict the tax increase would exceed the hike voters approved back in May by a whopping 6 percent.
William Hogan blames a nearly 7 million dollar cut in state funding, and consistently lower residential and commercial property assessments.
Hogan said, "The assessments really come in July, and this year, the state budget, really didn't get passed until August, and there's still questions about things like Charter School tuition in there that still aren't resolved as we speak."
But for now, it's homeowners like the Coles left paying the bill. not really sure where the extra money will come from.
"What are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to keep getting this money from? If the state doesn't have it, we don't have it either as homeowners. That's why people are moving out of Albany."
One other homeowner we spoke with was also a public school teacher. He said he didn't mind paying a little extra this year since the cash was going towards education.
