Spitzer’s STAR is dimmer than last year’s for some N.Y.ers
The Middle-Class STAR program, which was signed into law by Gov. Spitzer, was crafted to provide additional property tax relief for middle-class taxpayers. The new program grants rebate checks to those taxpayers whose income is below $250,000 per year. Unfortunately, this program clearly fails to deliver the much-needed tax relief that homeowners deserve. The state Department of Taxation and Finance is currently mailing applications to the homes of Basic STAR recipients so they may receive their rebate checks. Once the applications are received, the checks will be sent out on a rolling basis, determined by the dates on which the applications are received. Basic STAR recipients have until Nov. 30 to apply for their checks. For more information, visit the tax department web site at http://www.nystax.gov. Unfortunately, under Gov. Spitzer’s plan, some homeowners will see decreases from last year. That is not right. It is unconscionable that Mr. Spitzer would tout this program as new property tax relief, when some New Yorkers will receive the same or less in their rebate checks than last year. Seniors who qualify for the Enhanced STAR exemption need not apply for rebate checks. Checks will be mailed automatically to qualifying homeowners. While last year’s Local Property Tax Rebate Program provided seniors with 30 percent of their Enhanced STAR savings, this year’s rebate will only equal 25 percent. This has a profoundly negative effect on the amount some seniors will receive this year, with some receiving less than they did in 2006. My Assembly Republican colleagues and I have a plan that would double the tax rebate provided to seniors. Sadly, Gov. Spitzer and the Assembly Democrats failed to introduce or approve such legislation. Clearly, what New Yorkers need is longterm, meaningful property tax relief that will enable more homeowners and businesses to live the American dream. The Assembly Republican proposal would cap school property tax increases to no more than the rate of inflation, eliminate unfunded state mandates forced upon local school districts and municipal governments, and return Medicaid fraud recoveries to taxpayers. The Legislature can also keep New York’s property tax burden under control by refusing to vote for any state budget that increases spending by more than the rate of inflation and dedicating any budget surplus to cutting taxes and paying down state debt. Over the past seven years, more than 1.2 million New York residents have moved to other states because of exorbitant taxes Passage of our plan would afford them the relief they so desperately need. With property taxes continuing to skyrocket throughout the state, we must provide our homeowners with real assistance, and we must do it now. The rebate program provides too little relief, but it’s not too late to act. JAMES TEDISCO Schenectady The writer is state Assembly minority leader.
I'm starting to feel like I'm being abused more and more every year and we have to pay to be beaten like a government mule every time the tax bill comes out.
not government mules....government sheep.....the government has made itself a poor shepherd.......or actually we have allowed it.....we always assume that if something has a government stamp of approval it is okay, safe and the most excellent idea......sometimes yes and sometimes no.....discernment is something we need to exercise more often......
not to mention I think the lines between media impartiallity and the government itself is very blurred and lacking in sound judgement and wisdom.....
now is a good time to say "there is a government sponsored tax hurricane category 5 ready to sink NYS and we are already below the 'tea' level"................ So do we wait for the leaders to bail us out or do we dump the 'tea'........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
NYS will be the first socialized state in the country. We are almost there already.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
NYS will be the first socialized state in the country. We are almost there already.
Hey, with the new idea by Eliot "Steamroller" Spitzer, he's already expanded from having New York City as a Sanctuary City to making the first Sanctuary State.
Fulton County Supervisor Michael Rooney made a good point about the state’s STAR exemption in last Sunday’s Gazette: As real estate values, assessments and tax rates have risen in recent years, the value of the school-tax exemption, which is dollar-based, has slipped. Ideally, the STAR’s value would be increased, perhaps even indexed for inflation to keep this problem from recurring, but at this point it hardly seems as if the state can afford to do so. The basic STAR exemption has risen, from $10,000 in its first year in 1999 to $30,000 two years later, but it’s been stuck at that level ever since. By itself, the impact of rising property values (and accompanying assessments) wouldn’t be so severe. The problem is that school tax rates have also gone up, and in most places at a pace faster than the rate of inflation. So homeowners have gotten hit with a double whammy. Ideally, the state Legislature would raise the exemption to account for some, if not all, of this inflation. Or at least it might consider imposing the 4 percent annual cap on school tax hikes that Gov. George Pataki proposed with the original STAR. Unfortunately, given the state’s fiscal outlook — a story in yesterday’s Gazette indicates the deficit next year will exceed $4 billion — and the political clout of the teachers’ unions, the chances of either happening seem remote. Nonetheless, state lawmakers are talking about overhauling the STAR program, so anything is possible. But unless you’re the federal government, it’s pretty hard to cut taxes when you’re already deeply in the red.
The basic STAR exemption has risen, from $10,000 in its first year in 1999 to $30,000 two years later, but it’s been stuck at that level ever since. By itself, the impact of rising property values (and accompanying assessments) wouldn’t be so severe. The problem is that school tax rates have also gone up, and in most places at a pace faster than the rate of inflation. So homeowners have gotten hit with a double whammy.
That is now in the past.....our values will go down as the subprime and credit crunch comes blowing into the present...blowing away all the 'imagined' value and giving us what is truthful---not false scales......
S-state T-taxes A-applied R-rectally
will still exist....... >
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
If the County Council was fair they'd lower the value of all the properties in the county by the amount that the property value has dropped and then tax us on that value instead of the over-valued amount that the reval indicated.
The re-val didn't 'over valuate' us.....we did with credit cards/mortgages/car loans/poor shopping choices/bad(shady)business practices/unjust scales etc....put us here......
Free money, and taxpayers don’t want it! How else to explain the fact that some 600,000 New York property owners have failed to apply for their bonus school tax rebate check? So the state has decided to extend the deadline another month, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31, hoping that the roughly 25 percent of all eligible property owners who haven’t filed for their checks will do so. How charitable of the state at a time it can ill afford to be, but one can’t help but wonder why such a convoluted process to distribute this money was adopted in the first place. After all, New York’s seniors weren’t required to make a special application for their bonus check; it was simply mailed to them, no questions asked — just the way everyone who qualified for a check last year got one. But that must have been too easy for legislative leaders, who perceived some political benefit by mailing the checks around election time. So this year they made it a two-step process, doubling their opportunity to remind us whom to be grateful for. Total cost for first notifying us, then mailing some 3.3 million checks: roughly $2 million. But that’s not all. The state also had to calculate how much money to send (factoring in an applicant’s income as well as local and school taxes rates), so this was anything but a simple task. How about next time (if there is one, and there may not be, given the state’s rapidly deteriorating finances), the state just increases the value of everyone’s STAR exemption, and grants the relief directly through local tax bills?
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