Albany Property Taxes (New York, Schenectady, York: houses, school districts, closing)

[Fearringtonflash]

Why in the world are property taxes so high in Albany? $8600 for a house priced at less than $300,000? That really seem excessive.

[anothertntony]

Originally Posted by Fearringtonflash

Why in the world are property taxes so high in Albany? $8600 for a house priced at less than $300,000? That really seem excessive.

In some parts of the Capital District the taxes would be higher than that; $8600 for a $300,000 house is probably "cheap" for this area. The proposed state budget includes cuts to the STAR program, which would directly increase property taxes further for many people.

New York State has a very bad habit of passing legislation requiring municipalities to provide certain services, but funding is typically not provided to cover the services. Thus, the only way for local governments to meet the mandates is to tax at the local level. For example, counties are required to fund a quarter of Medicaid services; most states do not pass this cost to the local level. In most counties, that is where the majority of the tax revenues go. See the following for more information about health-care related costs to the counties:

County Budgets Pinched by State Medicaid Changes - New York Times

And then of course there are the school taxes. New York State spends more per student on education than any other state (I have seen Washington DC higher in some rankings). Of course, NYS does not have the highest performance of any state. Instead, we pay far more than other states for the same or worse results. The school budgets in NYS could be cut significantly without actually affecting education (except of course that those cuts would be applied by the school districts such that they affected students rather than the top-heavy management structures).

In other areas, retiree health care is unsustainable. Schenectady, for example, is still trying to pay pensions and health benefits that were promised when that area was booming in the 50s. Schenectady has the highest property taxes in the state. You wouldn't expect that given that it is one of the least desirable cities in this area, but it is handcuffed by its prior commitments.

According to the Comptroller's Office numbers at

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/...2007table2.pdf

a $300,000 house in Schenectady would set you back $14,661 per year in taxes. Of course, there probably are not many $300,000 houses in Schenectady, but that is one of the reasons that Schenectady has little hope for a turnaround in the near-to-mid future.

[Fearringtonflash]

Thanks--Very informative reply. Granted, the sources of school and public services supports are very different, but in NC the property tax on a 180,000 house is about $1200/year. But I do notice that the NYS Income tax is much lower than NC's when one gets to the higher brackets.

[Miker]

The more we give the school districts, the more they need. There has been an increase in taxes of about 10% per year for the Albany SD for at least the past 5 years. The inflation rate during this time has been around 3% per year. I'd say It's time to vote out the entire school board. I could do a better job than they are at reducing costs.

Closing all of the "Charter Schools" would be a good start. If they are such a great idea why limit these ideas to the chosen few. Implement the policies of these charter schools in the public school district. That way we would not have to be supporting two separate school districts.

[Fearringtonflash]

Whenever candidates campaign for the school board they almost always take pains to say they have children in the system, as though that were some basis for qualification. Isn't it time for some smart individuals to run for the office who DON't have children and who can represent the majority of taxpaying residents that support the schools?