Praising the homeowners paying the largest portion of property & school taxes.
2165 Technology Drive in Schenectady. …. 27,000 square foot building $55,554 up from $50,982 last year.
They should have been paying about $110,000. The tax giveaway ran out. And, as predictions are -- either close and leave OR pay the pricey lawyers to sue the city for an assessment reduction. And this one sued the city to reduce the assessment. It was approved at last week's council meeting In 2011 after the last reassessment, this building was worth $2.5 million. Today this property is worth $1.8, that's roughly a 30% reduction in value in 5 years. But the city is improving? Improving while the tax base is falling? Keep having the taxpayers subsidizing all these so called economic development projects (at taxpayer expense) and even nice homes will be worthless. Too bad the details, the numbers, showing the annual reduction in the tax base doesn't get published in the newspapers. That's part of why McTHEIF got re-elected. People see the pretty new buildings downtown, but they are never provided with the numbers, i.e., how much they have paid for downtown, how much they are paying in property and school taxes for downtown, how much the incomes of the developers and property owners downtown are (vs the typical total household income of families in the city), and then the year by year number from the assessment roll showing the year by year reduction in the tax base; oh yes, that should be listed side by side with the year by year increase in the combined tax rate in the city plus the increase in fees year by year. |