"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Property Tax Cap

Former Governor Eliot Spitzer in his 2008 State of the State address called for a special commission to study and propose an equitable cap on school property taxes. It is no surprise to anyone that New Yorker's pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation. The school tax levy is the greatest portion (see Wind Farm posting) of the annual property tax bill that homeowners pay.

The STAR program is nothing more than closing the hatch on a sinking ship, typical New York State style, it has effectively failed to attack and fix the cause of the issue and school property tax levies across New York State are continuing to rise.

The Empire Center for New York State Policy has release a revised report on the issue. The report rightfully also calls for the revision of our property assessing system, which many residents are no stranger to given the autonomous town assessing system in our counties.

The Governor and State Legislature need to take this one step further if they are serious about the control of property taxes. They need to work with localities for the consolidation of government and its services. The performance or lack of it to accomplish mutual goals needs to be tied to state aid. Property tax is needed now, for the elderly struggling to stay in their homes, for the young families struggling to purchase or keep their first home, for business to remain viable and create jobs and generally to encourage people to invest in the upkeep of their homes.

If you are interested in reading the full report, the knowledge will be helpful especially when all the candidates for New York State Legislature are asking for your vote in this fall's election.

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