- By Dan Veaner
- Opinions
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I should have known better. The Lansing school district is already talking about the supermajority vote they got on this year's budget, and how that encourages them that they can get it again to bypass the 2% tax cap in the future if they need to, largely due to State mandates and cuts, and the local situation with AES Cayuga's declining value. And the County is talking about upward of 5% for next year's budget -- in part because a supermajority of County legislators can bypass it, in part because the State has built in loopholes, and in large part because New York is forcing local taxing authorities into the role of bad guy even though it is the State legislators themselves who have created the situation.
Here's the deal. The state enforces mandates that would cost considerably more than a 2% property tax rise to pay for. Then the State says those authorities must only tax an additional 2%. That makes State legislators look like the good guys. But, doing the math, local legislators realize they can't cap at 2% or they will be penalized by the state. So they are forced to vote for a higher tax rise, making them look like the bad guys.
Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Many people say Tompkins County spends too much, and maybe it's true. However, the mandate situation has gotten so ourt of hand that it's hard for we poor taxpayers (and we are getting poorer and poorer) to know who to be mad at. So first thing's first. And that is the State.
The tax cap legislation is too weak with too many loopholes. So-called mandate reform doesn't seem to reform anything that will really make a difference to local taxing authorities. And I keep pointing out that the people in Albany who wield the power over how local governments collect and spend their money are the LAST people I want to tell my local authorities how to collect and spend money because they have been so incredibly irresponsible themselves. Really? Albany telling Tompkins County how to spend? or Lansing or Groton? If it weren't so tragic it would be a joke.
By the way, local municipalities that wouldn't otherwise go above 2% are saying the cap won't affect their ability to do what they have to do. So that leaves the County and the School District, the bodies that already collect the most in local property taxes.
The upshot is that individuals like you and me have been led down a path of optimism that the heinous property taxation in New York State will be fixed, when it is worse than ever. Lansing's County Representative pat Prior noted Wednesday that the State is shifting the burden from income tax, which taxes people who can afford to pay, to property tax, which has no actual connection to money (unless you are forced to sell your property in order to pay it). That, plus the extremely misleading "cap and reform" the State is selling seems to me to make the highest taxed state in the nation an even worse place to work and live -- or just survive -- than it was before.
I didn't think that was possible.
I shouldn't have underestimated Albany's creativity.
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