Paterson: Maybe STAR should be cut
     The state should consider changing or ending the STAR property-tax-rebate plan next year in an effort to reduce spending, Gov. David Paterson said today.
    “How effective has the STAR program been?’’ Paterson said in an interview on TALK-1300 in Albany this morning. “Maybe we have to take a look at it.’‘
   Paterson has pledged to work to cut state spending by as much as 10 percent next year in the wake of an expected sharp decline in tax receipts. He said he and the Legislature should get to work on finding spending reductions right away.
  The $5 billion STAR program provides rebates – sometimes in the thousands of dollars – to residential school property-tax payers.
  Paterson, who started a week of radio interviews today, also said he plans to run for re-election in 2010. He also wouldn’t say why he donated only $150 to charities last year, saying he had already disclosed enough personal information.
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Paterson didn’t want to talk about his $150 to charity because he’s embarrassed he was caught by surprise. He didn’t know he was going to be governor, and he thought his tax filings would be confidential.
Paterson spent more on motel bills for his affairs than he gave to charity. He only gave old clothes to the Salvation Army and claimed they were worth $150. He must have learned that one from the Clintons, who once or more did the same thing.
Can we assume Paterson knows he can’t just end the STAR program without making other changes so the homeowners don’t get royally shafted?
Good article in today’s NY Post. Fred Dicker reports Cuomo is zeroing in on Pataki and Spitzer buddy Daniel Wiese, ex-state cop big shot, and a big contract from the Power Authority for “background investigations.” The idea is that Weise, who became IG of the Power Authority, might have abused this contract for dirty tricks’ work on behalf of both Spitzer and Pataki.
This guy is obviously disingenuous as well as batty. Eliminating STAR is not reducing spending; it is raising taxes. He had his chance to veto profligate spending, perks and pork and he declined. Aged, ailing senior citizens are the very last people one would chose to rob unless one were a drug-addled sociopathic mugger. Keep your dirty underwear; the Salvation Army doesn’t need it. Govern the state for two years and get out. This guy’s next good idea will be his first.
eliminating a tax refund is in fact a tax increase…
star benefits property owners…clearly the governor
wants to benefit those who don’t..that should really
help during the mortgage crisis….kind of like
adding oil to the fire
In this climate of high school/property taxes, even considering the possibility of ending the STAR program will likely lose Paterson my vote. I’m not even a homeowner, but I know many people, particularly seniors who have been in their homes for decades who can no longer afford the annual tax payments.
Bozo Paterson has just now issued a hiring freeze and ordered restrictions on spending. He should have done that before letting the budget be approved.
Maybe Paterson does not want to be a long term governor. Unless the New York State Elected Officials can come up with an alternate to funding for schools, ending the STAR program would be suicide for Paterson in NY State.
People’s tax bills would take such a jump….homeowners would vacate home ownership fast. Is Paterson nuts or what.
People do vote with their suitcases. There has been an ongoing loss of middle-class homeowners in NY. They have been getting out because Albany and other politicians have been running the state into the ground.
Parts of upstate look like a DMZ with all the lost jobs as corporations also moved out because of the taxes. That will spread downstate soon unless big fixes are made, fast.
Is Paterson seriuos? Does he know that NY already has the 3rd largest taxes in the country? And that’s with STAR!!
Compare CT to NY. In CT you pay about $3200 a year in property tax. In Westchester, that same property is a least $10K a year. WHY????
It’s time to start using your vote to vote out any politicians that supports any tax increases.
Politician’s need to wake up and realize the tax base is down for many reasons.
Job cuts, Pay decrease, and any jobs being created are low paying jobs with no benefits.
Wake up NY vote TAX Decrease when you’re in the booth.
Interesting – In this April, 2008 interview, Paterson said he would “cut spending 10%. Not only did he NOT do that, he received and continues to receive a windfall from the Feds (us, from our other pocket) and even with all of those billions, he succeeded in spending substantially MORE, not less, raising taxes and fees, and STILL is deep, really deep, in the hole. He is a good-meaning fiscal fool who forgets he is the governor (temporarily) and, though he is 55 years old, thinks he works for Sheldon Silver and his daddy, not the State residents. Incredibly, the other State Democrats are even WORSE fools than he. The biggest fools and clowns in this circus, however, are the voters who allow all these choking weeds to continue to kill the ever-receding lawn of sanity.
And so the ignorance of our brave elected leaders is once again so prominently displayed. The sheer arrogance of Paterson is just annoying and ridiculous.
He can only see STAR as an expense to Albany. Which it technically is but unfortunately, because of this pathetic state, it is one of the very few spending programs that actually helps the majority of people who really need it.
The very fact that NY needs to tax all incomes in order to refund property owners is ridiculous in and of itself. NY should have realized once STAR was proposed that Property taxes are too high and something needs to be done. But instead they just reverse tax. It is a pointless concept.
Eliminating STAR would effectively cut taxes and Albany spending but it would leave thousands of homeowners with the full tax bill.
While standard Capitalism would tell you to fend for yourself and if you cannot afford the tax bill then too bad but this state is getting out of hand. Even in a massive recession some school districts saw teachers grabbing 7% raises, buying new unneeded school buses, wasteful building and capital improvement projects, etc…
I would love to see STAR repealed and the tax burden it causes reduced BUT ONLY AFTER PROPERTY TAXES have also been effectively dealt with.
It seems more and more obvious that this state should just eliminate property taxes altogether and just income tax everyone to achieve some fairness here. I know some middle class families that have been in their house for 2+ decades who are paying close to $8-9,000 a year in property taxes alone. And we are not talking Westchester here. Pure garbage.
Your final, logical proposal should effectively reverse the worrisome, continuing tumbling value of residential real estate in NY. When the guv and his minions eliminate STAR, they add insult to injury by CUTTING NOTHING, adding even more misery to the taxpayers’ misery quotient.
The STAR program is basically a shift in a small percentage of the property tax burden from property owners to all residents. The irony is that property owners are essentially paying part of their own rebate. Recent changes to STAR has seen significant tax increases to the wealthy to fund an income based rebate program for middle class homeowners, etc…
The joke is that the wealthy and even people who rent are helping to pay peoples property taxes so in a sense it is middle class welfare. But to me the middle class is always getting the shaft so for once it’s a wasteful spending program that actually helps the backbone of the state so I don’t mind it.
Cutting the STAR program will not mean more tax revenues for Albany. All it does is cut the spending but one would assume they would also have to cut the tax increases they designed to generate the funding.
So ultimately Ed1 is correct in that it cuts NOTHING because they would have to lose the tax increases associated with the funding as well as the spending. Now the benefit is it would see reductions in taxes for people like Golisano but no rebates for any homeowner.
I fail to see how Paterson can actually cut spending by eliminating the STAR program unless he intends to keep all related taxes but just cut the rebate payments. Now that would be some serious abuse.
take – take – & take how much can u keep taking from the middle class worker .lets start taking form our highly elected officials who are making 100,00 – 250,000 a year. sure they dont give a damn ,they can afford it . the star program to a lot of people helps them with there already out rageous tax bills we have and for what??? You tell me what u get in sullivan county?? absolutely nothing but taxed to death and why so our officials can make and pocket more money?? what a shame and im wondering when people are going to get fed up with this crap and start screaming louder.tax – tax – and more tax just keep shoving it . i guess its the american way wake up people