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Robert Biggerstaff, Association Executive Director and General Counsel,
testified before the Suozzi Commission on Real Property Tax April 23rd
in Albany. After giving the Commission a brief overview of the
characteristics and challenges facing New York’s small city school
districts, Bob recommended the following:
Instead of asking generally if property taxes are too high, the
Commission should consider what measurements they use to make their
comparison.
Cities and other urbanized regions commonly experience much higher
levels of taxation than do suburban and rural areas. The greater level
of public services provided in urban areas contributes to what is known
as municipal overburden. It is meaningless therefore to compare New York
to states which are more rural or suburban in character.
Bob pointed out that it is important to look at how property taxes are
measured and asked the Commission to consider;
…whether property taxes are too high when measured as a percentage of
full value or when measured against income. This is an important
distinction, particularly in those regions of the state where very large
segments of the tax base are owned by wealthy non-resident taxpayers
He
went on to ask the Commission to consider using the Need/Resource Code
system, developed by the Department of Education in order to gauge the
degree of student need and the availability of local resources to meet
these needs, as a way to see the whole picture.
Bob informed the Commission that not all property taxes are too high and
asked them to consider the following:
Eighty three percent of the 105 low need school districts in the
state are clustered on Long Island … and the lower Hudson... They have
the lowest school tax rates in the state by far and also the highest
incomes in the state by far. Even when the income/student is adjusted
downward for regional costs, the lower Hudson … and NYC/Long-Island… are
about double the average district across the state...
The high need districts in these same regions by contrast, pay much
higher tax rates from much lower incomes... There are nine high need
districts on Long Island. Their average tax rate [is] almost double the
… rate of the low need districts. Yet the income level in the high need
districts is about one-third that of the low need districts...
Bob cautioned the Commission that any tax cap plan that is not
“carefully crafted only perpetuates the gross and glaring inequities
that have kept this state in court for decades.” He reiterated that
“high school taxes are not uniformly high,” and that the true problem
with property taxes in New York State is not that they are too high, but
they are, “too high in the wrong places for the wrong people.”
The Association has a long history of addressing the problems of rising
education costs and the unbalanced tax burden small cities bear in
providing a “sound basic education”. Bob proposed a number of solutions
to the Commission that would alleviate the overburdening of these
districts’ taxpayers.
b) Enact a local option allowing communities to covert to 50%
reliance on income tax for support of schools. We believe that it is
technically feasible to shift a portion of the current property tax levy
to a surcharge on the computed state income tax for each school
district, town or county. This would provide some relief to businesses
and low-income seniors. It would increase the burden on higher income
residents. Some communities with substantial vacation property,
reservoirs or power plants now export a large share of their local costs
to out-of-town taxpayers. Shifting some of this levy to a visible
income-based school tax might make all residents more attentive to local
costs.
e) Facilitate district or tax base consolidation to eliminate the
stranding of districts with the weakest tax bases. Shifting a portion of
the school levy to a county-wide tax base distributed over student
enrollment would also bring relief where there are large disparities in
property wealth.
Please Note: The Association’s testimony in its entirety can be accessed
from
http://scsd.neric.org. |
