SARATOGA COUNTY — Property assessments in Saratoga County rose 2 percent to 4 percent last year, the first time in recent memory the percentage rise hasn’t been in the double digits, but school officials in the county said the figures were in line with their spring projections so taxpayers shouldn’t get any big surprises .

Most 2008-09 school tax bills will be mailed next week.

“Values are not climbing at the rate they used to, but they are up 2 to 4 percent,” according to Saratoga County Real Property Tax Service Director Carol Holley.

“In the past we had double digit increases each year.”

She said part of the reason values are going up more slowly is a drop in the number of new buildings being constructed.

“We saw the drop start mid-summer last year and even now the new construction of single-family homes is slow,” Holley said.

The assessments are used to calculate property taxes and the assessed value of a property determines how much the owner will be charged for school, town, county and where applicable, village taxes.

The county office releases assessment data each summer, months after school budgets are created. School administrators make their calculations for school taxes based in part on an estimation of what the property values will be. In recent years, higher than anticipated assessments brought lower taxes than had been predicted.

For the Saratoga Springs City School District, Assistant Superintendent for Business Kurt Jaeger said his calculations for the fall tax bills were on target as assessments were up very slightly from last year.

He said this was the second year of “modest growth” in the district, which includes Saratoga Springs and parts of Wilton, Greenfield, Milton, town of Saratoga and Malta.

“The last two years have tapered off from the fast growth we saw before that,” he said.

The tax increase in the district will be just under 4 percent, which is what was predicted in the spring before updated assessments were done this summer.

For the Shenedehowa School District, spokeswoman Kelly DeFeciani said, Clifton Park’s total assessed property value rose only two-tenths of a percent.

“This is one of the lowest periods of assessment growth for the town of Clifton Park in many years,” she said. “Halfmoon’s assessment growth increased by 3 percent.” By comparison, the town of Malta jumped 41 percent. The increase was due mostly to a revaluation of property over the last year, bringing assessments closer to market value.”

Reassessments are done periodically in an effort to spread taxes evenly among property owners.

When a town does not have full value assessment, an equalization rate is set that strives to balance assessments between towns in a county. Keeping equalization rates at 100 percent of value is costly and time consuming and the numbers are often only accurate for one year. Towns historically wait several years between revaluations.

All Saratoga County school district cross town borders, and tax rates vary within the districts.

DeFeciani said the Halfmoon’s 3 percent assessment increase was a result of new construction.

Waterford, Stillwater and Ballston all have some property in the district as well and the tax rates are different in each.

Tax rates for each town are listed on the school’s Web site, www.shenet.org.

In the Ballston Spa Central School District, properties in Milton, Malta, Ballston and Charlton pay the bills.

Assistant Superintendent Brian Sirianni said the other towns have equalization rates that strive to bring their values up to par with Malta this year.

In Milton, the equalization rate is 90 percent, in Ballston it’s 87 percent and in Charlton the rate is 68 percent.

Sirianni said the total assessed value of the district’s properties this year is $2.1 billion, but when the equalization rate is factored in, the value is $2.3 billion.

“There was a slight increase in the assessed value, which brings tax bills down about 10 or 11 cents per thousand from what we anticipated in the spring,” Sirianni said.

In the Galway Central School District, Superintendent Clifford Moses said the assessed value of properties in seven towns were very close to the predictions of the spring.

“The tax levy is the same as we thought it would be and is up 4.4 percent [from last year],” he said.

None of the towns in Galway’s school district are at full value this year. The lowest equalization rate is in the town of Amsterdam where property assessments are only 9.25 percent of full value and the tax rate is $130.40 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

That’s compared to Milton with a 90 percent equalization rate and a tax levy of $13.40 per $1,000 of assessed property value, according to Moses.

In the Galway School District, tax bills are expected to be mailed this week.