Archive: Opinions

'As Lansing residents get their property tax bills one thing will be obviously better.  In response to an inexplicable explosion in county assessments, the Town tightened it's already snug belt this year.  Instead of the typical 3% or so rise in the tax rate, Pinney and the Town Board brought the 2009 tax rate in at minus 2%.'

I believe that this statement is very misleading.  While it is accurate to say the tax RATE went down, it is the tax LEVY that is the primary determinate of how much tax we pay. In fact, the Town of Lansing has substantially INCREASED spending and therefore increased the amount of tax that town citizens will pay in 2009. This increase in spending is much higher that the average increase across all other towns in the county. Most Lansing residents will see an increase in their Lansing town taxes close to 15%.  

Hopefully the Lansing Star will correct its story so Town residents are fully aware of the increase in taxes from 2008 to 2009.  Most importantly, it would help if the article outlined the specific costs that contributed to the large increase. 

	Editor's Note: I may not have been as clear as I meant to be in that article.  I don't think the Town is thrifty because the tax rate is down.  I think it is thrifty because it acts responsibly in keeping the budget down as much as possible year after year.  Budgets and tax levies go up because things cost more every year, but having covered the various Lansing municipal bodies for years I think the Town and Fire District are quite fiscally responsible, and in most cases surprisingly conservative.

Here are the facts:

1. The Lansing Town tax LEVY increased 15.7% from 2008 to 2009. This is the increase in total spending that must be paid by town citizen\'s taxes. (Numbers received from the County Assessment Office.) In contrast, the Tompkins County tax levy for Lansing increased only 2.5% from 2008 to 2009.

2. The average town resident will see an increase in the dollar amount of their town tax bill between 13% and 16%.  The increase will be more if they made capital improvements resulting in an additional assessment increase. The increases will also vary a small amount if the county adjusted an assessment due to change in the market value of an individual home.

3. The increase in the town assessment tax base was not an inexplicable explosion but rather it was a clearly explained change by the county from an 85% uniform assessment value to a 100% uniform assessment value.  The town of Lansing's assessment tax base increased by 18.1% (per the County Assessment Office), somewhat more than the county wide average.  This may be because some of the houses also increased in market value, some added capital improvements, and there was likely a small addition to the total number of houses. 

4. It is misleading to say that the town has been frugal because it reduced the rate per one thousand of assessed value by 2%.  Given the change in the county assessment tax base the rate should have gone DOWN 15- 16% for Lansing residents to stay even, or DOWN about 13-14% to cover a modest increase in the tax levy of 2.5%. 

5. Most towns in our county had tax levy changes between -4% and 3.8%.and their rate per one thousand of assessed value went DOWN closer to 13 to 16%. 

6. The tax levy for the Lansing Fire District increased by 14.7%, again an extremely large spending increase in these tough times.

I hope the Lansing Star will quickly publish an article that reports the increase in our tax levy and outline the specific costs that significantly influenced the large increase in Lansing taxes this year, a year in which individuals and businesses in Lansing are actively in the process of tightening their fiscal belts."

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