Broome School District Mails Tax Refund Checks After Overpayments

Some property owners in one Broome County school district have received some unexpected news.

People in the Vestal Central School District were surprised when they discovered a refund check in the mail.

According to a letter from school district superintendent Jeffrey Ahearn dated August 2, some property owners received a refund of a portion of what they paid in school taxes.

Ahearn's message indicates that someone notified the district that some "Basic STAR" taxpayers overpaid their taxes for the 2021-2022 school tax year.

The note states the district learned of the mistake "at the end of this school year." It said "this was a result of an error in the electronic file used by the agency that creates" the districts school tax bills. It said: "Apparently, the electronic file used an incorrect (lower) STAR exemption than what it should have been." The agency responsible for the tax bills was not identified in the letter.

The message said the district "began investigating to determine where the breakdown occurred in an effort to correct it. Our intent is to prevent the same situation from occurring in the future."

Ahearn did not indicate exactly how the mistake happened. The letter with the check apologized "for any confusion this may have caused."

Ahearn and other Vestal School District representatives could not be reached Monday afternoon to elaborate on the error.

Representatives of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli were not immediately available to discuss the overpayments or whether the office was aware of other New York school districts which received overpayments over the past year.

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Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com or (607) 545-2250. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.