County Taxes to Increase 6.33% for Scarsdale Residents

The Westchester County Tax Commission released its estimate of the effect that Westchester's 2013 budget will have on individual municipalities on 12/20/12. For the third year in a row the overall county property tax levy has not increased and remains at $548 million, identical to 2012 and 2011. However, because communities assess properties at different levels of full value and property values don't go up and down uniformly from community to community, the amount owed by each municipality to the county changes from year to year. A state equalization rate is applied to each municipality so that the tax can be fairly apportioned.

The result is that 15 communities will see their portion of county taxes go down and 10 will see them go up. Scarsdale's increase is among the highest in the county, rising 6.33%, second only to the City of Rye, where taxes will go up 7.46%. Increases here are offset by decreases ranging from 7.67% in Mount Vernon to 0.45 percent in New Castle.

According to County Executive Rob Astorino, "The county has done its job to hold the line on our county property tax,"... "However, every year the county tax levy affects local governments differently."

County property taxes account for about 15 to 20 percent of a property owner's tax bill. School taxes account for about 60 percent and village government taxes for the remaining 20 percent. Therefore, to estimate how much your county taxes will go up in 2013, take 20% of your real estate tax bill, and increase that by 6.33%.

Here's the estimated percentage change in tax levy by municipality for 2013:

City of Mount Vernon (7.67)
City of New Rochelle (2.53)
City of Peekskill (2.63)
City of Rye 7.46
City of White Plains (6.07)
City of Yonkers (3.19)
Town of Bedford 2.51
Town of Cortlandt 1.60
Town of Eastchester (0.98)
Town of Greenburgh 2.10
Town of Harrison 5.73
Town of Lewisboro (5.56)
Town of Mamaroneck 5.16
Town of Mount Kisco (1.54)
Town of Mount Pleasant 1.22
Town of New Castle (0.45)
Town of North Castle 3.25
Town of North Salem 0.90
Town of Ossining (5.00)
Town of Pelham (2.52)
Town of Pound Ridge 0.83
Town of Rye (3.74)
Town of Scarsdale 6.33
Town of Somers (3.18)
Town of Yorktown (2.17)