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

Thursday, August 7, 2008

More Holes Than A Broken Pinata

The Senate is due to return to Albany tomorrow in order to debate and pass school property tax cap legislation. Provided the Democrats participate in the governing process like they are suppose to, they plan to introduce a bill sponsored by Senator Darrel Aubertine and others.

The legislation S8733 dubbed, "Tax Relief Triple Play," appears to have more holes in it than a broken pinata. The legislation is suppose to; cap property taxes, slash unfunded mandates and add a circuit breaker, which limits tax liability to between 6-8% of income.

Property Tax Cap:
It is severely watered down as it eliminates for consideration in the formula three of the fastest growing segments of school budgets; special education, transportation and capital projects. For an example take a close look at Carthage Central School budget debacle. They reasoned part of their increase was due to their capital projects match. Therefore, removing these components is nothing but making a tax cap just smoke and mirrors, it will continue to allow budgets to grow at a rate greater than the rate of inflation.
* a school district's tax levy limit, excluding the taxes necessary to support
the local share of capital, transportation and special education expenditures,
could increase by up to the lesser of 4% of 120% of the annual increase in the
consumer price index (CPI)
  
Mandate Relief:
This portion of the legislation lacks sufficient teeth to stop unfunded mandates. For example;
19    2. In the event that a mandate which imposes  a  cost  upon  a  school
    20  district  is created after the adoption of a school budget, such mandate
    21  shall not be implemented until the following year for which such  school
    22  budget was adopted. 
Or perhaps
 
23    3. Notwithstanding subdivision two of this section, such a mandate can
    24  be imposed if:

Then it goes on to list several exceptions including school board choice or an executive order of the governor, etc.

Circuit Breaker:
The centerpiece of the legislation is designed to limit property tax liability on a graduating scale to between 6 and 8% of income, but this again falls short on any benefit for the North Country residents. Take into account that most North Country residents pay around 4% of their income out to property taxes the benefit for them is the big ZERO!

Here is the kicker folks...hold onto your wallets here...this is where it COST the North Country property taxpayers. Aubertine is proposing to repeal middle class STAR rebate benefits. 
Section 47: repeals section 178 of the tax law establishing th
"Middle Class STAR" rebate program.
And the real deal, even if you do pay in excess of 6% to 8% of your income in property taxes, you actually have to pay out the money, then you receive a tax credit equal only to 70% of the overage paid.

Aubertine and the other sponsors of this legislation list the fiscal implications as "to be determined," irresponsible at best, considering the fiscal condition of the state coupled with the fact this provides no benefits for North Country residents it is bad legislation. The legislation is proposed to take effect immediately, thus eliminating the fall STAR rebate checks, while the circuit breaker and cap do not kick in until next year.

You can say - TAX INCREASE!

Darrel was hood winked again, this is legislation designed to provide relief to his moral caucus companion Craig Johnson on Long Island and satisfy New York State United Teacher's union NYSUT, it does nothing for the hard working North Country residents.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darrel must have misunderstood what he was sponsoring. Maybe his form that included benefits for us was not filled out. Or maybe someone told him it was in there somewhere. Drew will have an excuse I am sure.

Anonymous said...

I hope Darrel can explain why he thinks taking away my rebate check is going to help my budget.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to hear Drew's explanation of why his boss is sponsoring legislation that does more for Long Island homeowners than it does for us!

Anonymous said...

Maybe, just maybe it's aabout time the inspector general or the Attorney General take on these criminals in Albany and tell them that enough is enough. Your taxes increases are not warranted and are criminal. State overspending, fiscal mismanagement and just plain stupidity are the reasons this state is so much in the red. Yea I'm a state employee and the waste I see every day would scare you. Maybe the constitution of NY needs to be changed to dictate to the lawmakers that WE THE PEOPLE not you the self proclaimed know it alls will be mandated to pass our legislation and our bills and not yours. None of you phonys in Albany are doing anything right for New Yorkers except the "CITY." Well I sick of carrying the city so let them carry themselves.

Anonymous said...

I think your math is off. I live in a modest house, assessed at $118K. We pay $3600 in property taxes, and have an income of about $44k ($42 adjusted gross). It seems this bill would save us about $1000. What is wrong with that?

Anonymous said...

It seems this would help a lot of people in the North Country, and it would be better than Star, which just sends tons of money to West Chester and downstate with no accounting of income.

Anonymous said...

You can't clean up the Republican's mess overnight. I am sure no matter what party we are it is going to hurt somewhere.

Anonymous said...

S8377 is not going to do anything to lower my taxes, or my net taxes. It looks good on paper but when I do the math with my tax bills and income, I would have to have a low 30's income to get anything. Then when the do away with the Star rebate, i am still losing money.

How stupid does our Senator think we are.

Anonymous said...

darrel has no idea how to do this job. deer in headlights i believe is the term.

Anonymous said...

hey everyone you must be forgetting that HE IS ONE OF US!!!!
what a joke !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

you must have been part of the barclay campaign. your posts are very mean spirited and angry. not thoughtful whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

by the way, it is really tacky that the same person comes on here and posts multiple comments pretending to be different people each time. 2:55, 3:02, 3:09.

City Watch said...

you must have been part of the barclay campaign. your posts are very mean spirited and angry. not thoughtful whatsoever.

No ma'am or sir, we are just dealing with the issues here as opposed to your candidate, who during that race ran a commercial that showed a picture of Barclay's parent's residence.

That had nothing to do with the issues facing voters, it was mean spirited.

That is the problem, when the issues are challenged you folks cry foul and when you play dirty politics it is ok!

It does not work that way, this is an issue that is fair play to critique!

Anonymous said...

i'm really angry that Aubertine sold a vote of the public for profit. Low as is possible in government. Even if i was for wind, i would have wanted him to abstain from the vote. Smart people know this is the kind of obvious conflict that tanks projects as soon as this stuff comes to light. You must understand how wrong that is. Nothing is above board with this guy.

Anonymous said...

Is it true that Darrel will try to derail Gov Paterson's tax cap bill in the Senate today by trying a filibuster, pushing his own plan instead?

Is that payback to the Governor for embarrasing him on the NYPA job offer?

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