In New York State, the property tax is a local tax, raised and spent locally to finance local governments and public schools. While the State does not collect or receive any direct benefit from the property tax, this tax is still of major importance as the largest single revenue source for the support of municipal and school district services. More than $26 billion is raised in local property taxes across the state annually.

The New York State Office of Real Property Services (ORPS) is statutorily obligated to administer an equalization program in order to assure equitable property tax allocation among nearly 4,000 taxing jurisdictions in New York State, and to insure the proper allocation of State Aid to Education funds, among other purposes. Equalization seeks to measure the relationship of locally assessed values to an ever-changing real estate market. Each year, ORPS calculates equalization rates for each of the state’s more than 1,200 assessing units.

Schenectady County Municipal Equalization Rates:

Swis Code	Type	Municipality Name	State Equalization Rate	Status	Date Established	Complaint Filed	Level of Assessment*	CAP Code**	Section 1402(3)***
420000	County	Schenectady	93.53	Final	08/09/10	N
421500	City	Schenectady	100.00	Final	07/20/10	N	100.00
422000	Town	Duanesburg	31.45	Final	07/20/10	N	31.45
422001	Village	Delanson	31.45	Final	07/20/10	N			422000
422200	Town	Glenville	91.00	Final	07/20/10	N	91.00
422201	Village	Scotia	91.00	Final	07/20/10	N			422200
422400	Town	Niskayuna	100.00	Final	07/27/10	N	100.00
422600	Town	Princetown	32.25	Final	08/04/10	N	32.25
422800	Town	Rotterdam	100.00	Final	08/09/10	N	100.00

* As reported by the Assessor. Section 305-2 of the Real Property Tax Law requires that all real property be assessed at a uniform percentage of market value. (In Nassau County and New York City the uniform percentage is not municipal-wide, but applies to property classes). Most villages are not required to report a uniform percentage.

**If a code appears in the 'CAP Code' column, the municipality is part of a Coordinated Assessment Program.

***If a code appears in the 'Section 1402(3)' column, the municipality is a non-assessing village which uses the equalization rate(s) of the town(s) whose codes are shown.

To learn more about Equalization Rates, this link will take you to a pamphlet explaining what equalization rates are, what they mean, and how they are used.  Click here for the pamphlet.