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The 2% tax cap on tax levies isn't two percent.  For example, when Lansing voted on this year's school budget in May, that cap was calculated at 4.81%.  This year Albany added a twist.  If your school district stayed within the tax cap you would be eligible for a refund this month in the amount of the difference between what you paid last year and what you pay this year.  Seems simple enough...  if you pay $100 more this year than last, you'll get a check for $100.  Or will you?

"Well, yes, at its basic level," says Tompkins County Director of Assessment Jay Franklin.  "But the devil is in the details.  It is the difference between your tax bills, but, as with anything the state does, there are a few caveats."

The Lansing School District stayed barely below the tax cap this year, , increasing the levy by 4.80% to remain below the 4.81% tax cap calculation.  That makes Lansing property owners eligible for a rebate check if they meet certain requirements.  First, you have to be eligible for the STAR (School Tax Assessment Relief) exemption.  Franklin says one of the peculiarities of the rebate check program is that you don't have to actually have a STAR exemption to get your check.  You simply have to be eligible for it.  He says a dozen property owners county-wide who qualify will not receive the STAR exemption but will get a refund check.

It doesn't matter how old you are or which version of STAR you are signed up for, except that people 65 or older who are signed up for Enhanced STAR can only have a combined household income of $83,000 or less to qualify, as opposed to Basic STAR taxpayers whose top income must be $500,000 or less.  STAR benefits are only available on a primary residence.  So if you own a vacation cabin you won't be getting two checks.

That is only the first complication.

"If your taxes changed because of an increase in assessment or a change in the exemption level, the state will look at what your taxes were based upon last year and create a tax bill this year based upon that scenario and calculate the check on that," Franklin explains.  "For instance, your assessment went up $50,000 from $200,000 to $250,000.  You would not get the  approximately $1,100 increase in school taxes based upon that increase but the state would calculate the taxes that would have been due on $200,000 this year and do the calculation on that."

Franklin adds that people whose property taxes decrease, either because of reassessment or because of the county tax rate dropping, will receive 1.46% of their prior year's school tax bill.  Remember, the tax refund is only applicable to school tax increases -- it will not impact your Town, Village, Fire, Library, or County taxes.

This year, at least.  Lansing Town officials have reached out to school officials to put together a dollar figure on a list of efficiencies, or services the taxing authorities share in order to qualify for next year's round of checks.  A formula for crediting one or the other taxing authority will impact a taxpayer's eligibility to receive a check next year, in addition to remaining below the tax levy cap.

Jay FranklinFranklin says he has been told that if someone has a house and a significant amount of acreage or a commercial business on their property, the state will calculate the taxes on the residential portion of the property only and calculate the refund check on that.

"What the state has told me they are doing is next to impossible," he remarks.  "But they have said they are doing it.  I have been on a weekly phone call for the last year with the state, assessors and Real Property Tax Directors to try to help guide this program and to try to address the details.  But we haven't gotten much accomplished in my opinion."

How big will your check be?  In general Franklin projects the owner of a $100,000 house will get $34.37, a $200,000 house will get $92.74 and a $300,000 house will receive $139.11.  Maybe.

"These figures might be $12 less," Franklin says.  "I don't know how the state is going to look at the change in the Basic STAR exemption.  Last year it saved us $588.  This year it is $600 even though it should have saved us $634,61 this year.  But New York State capped the STAR savings at 2% higher than last year.  So in effect our $30,000 STAR exemption is only worth $28,364.

"And for Enhanced STAR the $64,200 exemption is only worth $56,869 but I still am required to put the full amount on the assessment roll.  The Enhanced STAR cap is costing those individuals $155.07 extra this year.  This math is not complicated by any means but very very difficult to comprehend and something that has gone unreported."

As with many New York State programs, there is a lot of confusion on the local level, even after a program has been implemented.  The variables used by the State may work out differently for similar properties.

"From the weekly phones calls I have been on with the state, changes in exemptions are not going to be part of the tax freeze check so I can't get a good answer out of the state on this," Franklin explains.  "And there is no way that my office will be able to walk someone through their tax refund calculation as there are many asterisks that are in the equation.  While we can help out generally, we won't be able to answer the inevitable phone call in which we are told 'I only got $42 but my neighbor got $46'."

Franklin notes that another inexplicable piece of the refund check program is that mobile home owners within a mobile home park with receive 25% of the average refund check within the municipality/school district.  

"The vast majority of the mobile homes in a mobile home park do not pay school taxes to begin with, so to simply give them a refund check doesn't seem logical," he says.  "Also, with all of the work and effort that NYS put into making sure that 2.7 million people had to register in order to continue their STAR exemption, it just doesn't seem logical that NYS would just give away money without some calculation going on behind the scene.  (For COOPS, this figure is 60%... and in Tompkins County, for the COOPs that we have, this figure is much less than what I think they should get)."

Got it?  A check will in your mailbox soon.  Or not.  If you do get your check you may not be getting as much as you expect.  Or maybe you will.  Probably not.  Maybe.

Don't spend it all in one place!

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