Suozzi Pushes Tax Cap, NYSUT Seeks Taxes Tied To Income
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- July
- 24
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi kicked off his statewide push for a property-tax cap today by sending letters to legislative leaders asking them to support the cap.
Then he’s touring the state to push for it, visiting Rochester on July 29; August 12 in Binghamton; August 21 in Syracuse; Sept. 3 in Rockland and Sept. 26 in Niagara Falls.
“Let’s stop increasing the property taxes in New York State,” Suozzi told reporters during a conference call today.
Suozzi said that unlike his Reform Albany push in 2004, he won’t be targeting specific lawmakers up for election this year who don’t support his agenda.
“I don’t think I need to engage in that type of direct political activity with the governor championing this issue because he will help call attention to the property-tax cap,” Suozzi said.
Meanwhile, the New York State United Teachers is up with its television ad called “No Foolin’” that features a senior citizen who says a “so-called tax cap is nothing but a gimmick. Its one-size-fits-all approach for school funding takes away local control. My taxes will still go up. And deep cuts to school programs will hurt our kids.†She then says a circuit breaker would help seniors and middle-class families.
A circuit breaker would hold property taxes to a percentage of household income.
Here’s the ad:
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on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 1:51 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Circuit Breaker will not work.
Example. – you have 1 member of a family who makes $300,000 a year. The other member of the household makes $35,000. The individual who makes $35,000 ownes the house. So they will only pay taxes on the $35,000 income
This situation will make our tax problem worse.
This scenario might give dismay to the higher-earning partner who thinks he is saving a few bucks, when, (and perfectly legally,) partner #2 sells the house, takes the million, and still sues for alimony.
Good Point, but how does that solve the property tax issue in New York.
As Jack Benny replied, when the thug declared “Your money or your life,” – “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.” Hate to reply with humor on such an important issue. I really AM thinking.
Ed1, thinking is good. What normally happens in politics is people say what they feel people want to hear. It sounds good to say let the people with more money than I have pay for my bills. But that does not always happen. Instead of all this talk. It is the democrat assembly members who are holding back a tax cap. In November vote for the Republicabs in the state assembly and you will get a tax cap.
Problem is, even if by miracle, this got through the Assembly, they’re already building-in all kinds of exclusions to this cap, such as capital expenditures, transportation, and special-ed costs among others. By the time they get through, they will have something that is called an elephant, but in reality becomes a mouse.
This isn’t really a “cap†– it’s a rubber stamp, that, if approved, would totally remove taxpayer vote on each school budget, provided the budget doesn’t INCREASE any more than 4% each year {CPTR Preliminary Report, page 9, Part III Recommendations states: “School districts that do not exceed the cap would no longer be required to submit their budgets for an annual vote.â€} I know that my pay doesn’t increase 4% each year, so what’s the benefit to the working taxpayer?
Kudos to Elliot Spitzer for getting the tax reform ball rolling, Governor Paterson for keeping the commission active, and Sheldon Silver and Former Senate Leader Joseph Bruno for opposing the tax cap. The commission’s work has been thorough, although their proposals WILL NOT help taxpayers.
A property tax “circuit breaker†will not help either, as it is really nothing more than the institution of a local income tax – it would try to tie your income to your assessed property value (which is nothing more than one person’s OPINION of what they’d pay for your property). This is more of what we do NOT need in New York State.
Under the current UNFAIR property tax system, an assessor, who most likely is some sort of real estate professional, provides a guess, or opinion of what your home is worth, and thus what you will pay in taxes, as if that actually means anything about your ability to pay. A family of 5 living in their home that the assessor guesses is worth $50,000 pays twice as much as the family of 5 that lives in the home that the assessor guesses is worth $25,000. Both families use the same roads, the same schools, the same government services, but pay different tax just because of one person’s opinion. This is an abhorrent system that really must go away for good!
What if we instituted a tax system where you paid taxes based on what you consume in taxable goods? Would that tax the rich (who would consume more and pricier goods) more than the poor? YES! Would you be worried about what the assessor assumes your home to be worth? NO! Would the burden of proving the actual true value of your home fall upon you, the overworked taxpayer? The answer is no, it would be a change for all New Yorkers, but could be easily and fairly administered using existing sales tax collection methods.
In my utopian New York State, the state taxpayers would vote on the tax rate, and the county governments would be paid from sales tax revenues, state fees and fines, etc.., There would be a minimum funding requirement based on population for each county, then the different government entities (schools, police, fire, courts, etc..) would compete against each other, population-wise, politically and via a grading system for remaining funds.
Even better, perhaps we could consolidate the school districts AND the townships AND maybe even some of the smaller cities to the county level, thereby saving billions (trillions?) in shared service costs.