NORTHVILLE - The Northville Central School District's tax levy will decrease by 4.1 percent for the 2009-10 school year after the Board of Education applied more than $350,000 in fund balance toward reducing the tax levy.

In May, when the board was discussing the district's budget, it approved a 3.5 percent tax-levy increase for the school year. But after equalization rates in Benson and Hope fell to 91 percent, the board chose to apply an additional $363,000 in fund balance toward reducing the tax levy.

Benson and Hope previously had 100 percent equalization rates.

The new application of money means there will be a 4.1 percent tax levy decrease for taxpayers in the school district. The original tax levy set by the board in May was $4.9 million, and the new levy stands at $4.5 million. Last year's tax levy was $4.7 million.

Superintendent Kathy Dougherty said even though the district is taking some money away from its fund balance, the amount of fund balance it has left is slightly over 5 percent of its total budget.

The school district's budget for next year stands at $9.31 million. That number is a slight decrease from 2008-09.

"The fact that we were able to accrue savings and a little bit of additional revenue during the school year really helped us," Dougherty said.

She has cited the district's conservative spending-it has cut back on all non-essential purchases and earlier completed an energy-performance contract in order to save additional funds.

The board was required to adopt a final tax levy by the end of the month, since it was required to mail its tax bills by then.

"Even though we felt we prepared a very responsible budget, we said, 'What more can we do to lessen the impact now that we know the equalization rates?'" Dougherty said. "Having that extra money that we had saved over the course of the year, the responsible thing is to put it back into the levy rather than let the taxpayers pay."

The tax rates for each town, per $1,000 of assessed value, are as follows: Benson's is 9.22 percent, Bleecker's is 8.39 percent, Edinburg's is 17.48 percent, Hope's is 9.22 percent, Mayfield's is 12.53 percent, and Northampton's is 13.89 percent.

Zach Subar covers rural Fulton County news. He can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com