Long Island Property and School Taxes (Babylon, Huntington: purchase, price, vs.)
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Are there any general spreadsheets with tax averages through communities? I am looking to eventually purchase but the taxes have a lot of weight in our options. If I didn't get my career here in long island I would be off the island by now.
All LI needs is ONE school district, but I don't see consolidation of any kind happening here. It's everyone and their little fiefdom with a moat around it for perpetuity, while the high tax whining goes on and on and on...
Y'all can keep it and do whatever you want. I'm sick of this place after living here most of life, and have one foot out the door.
Yep, we need county schools, not town schools. That way salaries are the same across the board, the "better" teachers are distributed equally throughout the county, taxes would be cheaper, and ripoff administrator salaries would be a thing of the past. Get rid of the teacher unions and we are golden.
I was browsing some home values and tax assessments on the Nassau County property appraiser's website (Land Record Viewer) and noticed they list both "general" taxes and school taxes. Are homeowners liable for both of these every year?
On properties in the $1.5 - $2 million range in Great Neck, general taxes were around $8,500 and school taxes were upwards of $25,000! The school tax was what really surprised me. Are these homeowners actually paying $25-30k per year just in school taxes, or am I misunderstanding what this number means? How can anyone afford to buy a home when they have essentially have a second mortgage just from taxes?
Go to Suffolk. Less BS govt crooks. Taxes are cheaper, they don't assess home values annually like Nassau, and there are great schools. Harborfields is a top district, decent taxes, near a decent train line, about an hour, hour ten commute. Northport schools are aces too. Commack is another great pick. I'd stick with Harborfields just to be by that train. Top notch SD. Small student body. I'm buying there myself very soon. I'm a school district snob, so I've done my research. Harborfields is up there with Jericho, Syosset, etc. Total taxes on homes start at 8, go up into the 20's. You can get 2k sq ft plus home for around 11-14k total taxes. Good luck.
Go to Suffolk. Less BS govt crooks. Taxes are cheaper,
Is this true? A lot of the Suffolk posters in this forum have in the past posted the complete opposite (eg. mega shelter, Huntington shuffle, etc.). And aside from maybe Babylon, most of the good Suffolk SDs would be a PITA to commute to Manhattan where the OP wants to commute to.
Last edited by Forest_Hills_Daddy; 03-20-2015 at 04:42 AM..
Go to Suffolk. Less BS govt crooks. Taxes are cheaper, they don't assess home values annually like Nassau, and there are great schools. Harborfields is a top district, decent taxes, near a decent train line, about an hour, hour ten commute. Northport schools are aces too. Commack is another great pick. I'd stick with Harborfields just to be by that train. Top notch SD. Small student body. I'm buying there myself very soon. I'm a school district snob, so I've done my research. Harborfields is up there with Jericho, Syosset, etc. Total taxes on homes start at 8, go up into the 20's. You can get 2k sq ft plus home for around 11-14k total taxes. Good luck.
They dont reassess homes annually in Nassau. They stopped doing that as they could not afford to keep it up. It has been around 5 years since Nassau has reassessed
Go to Suffolk. Less BS govt crooks. Taxes are cheaper, they don't assess home values annually like Nassau, and there are great schools. Harborfields is a top district, decent taxes, near a decent train line, about an hour, hour ten commute. Northport schools are aces too. Commack is another great pick. I'd stick with Harborfields just to be by that train. Top notch SD. Small student body. I'm buying there myself very soon. I'm a school district snob, so I've done my research. Harborfields is up there with Jericho, Syosset, etc. Total taxes on homes start at 8, go up into the 20's. You can get 2k sq ft plus home for around 11-14k total taxes. Good luck.
- Commute time adds up. We were considering Commack. Not just the LIRR time but the subway time added on top of that. Twice a day every day.
All in all it's not really that much better to go out there IMO. You can get a $12-14k tax 2k sqft split home in a Plainview or Syosset. Compromise is it may run $550k instead of $500k.
A superintendent may make $200k-$300k. That's only 2 or 3 teachers' salaries. How many other highly paid administrators are in a district?
We need to try something else instead.
Do you have better ideas than cutting bloated staffing to lower the nation's highest cost to educate each student, "only" $26,000? Are we minting the nation's most brilliant graduates at this price?
There's 124 school districts islandwide. We pay for not just the super's salary, but the unlimited health and pension benefits until he/she croaks. I believe the surviving spouse gets partial benefits until he/she croaks. Then you have the assistant super(s) and administrators for every district, each one getting six-figs and bennies, and the attending support staff.
My town of Valley Stream has FOUR school districts, each of them treating themselves to duplicated high paying jobs because they apparently believe the local millionaires can afford it. This kind of waste is like throwing taxpayer money into the furnace to heat the building. Those cheery bulletins in get in the mail from the school district (that I pay for) don't make me feel any better.
How can you be an apologist for this and not go through your day feeling ripped off?
I am sure there are folks out there that always vote YES for the School Budgets and always vote YES for any Bond that the school board feels is necessary to maintain the schools. Can one of you posters tell us WHY you do it? Why do you vote YES, YES, YES, YES? I am just trying to understand do you have so much cash available, are you independently wealthy or is it just all the wealthy teachers and their families that keep voting YES. There are so many people that are fed up with the school taxes but some how at the end of the day the YES votes win. Can you explain why the YES vote.
I am sure there are folks out there that always vote YES for the School Budgets and always vote YES for any Bond that the school board feels is necessary to maintain the schools. Can one of you posters tell us WHY you do it? Why do you vote YES, YES, YES, YES? I am just trying to understand do you have so much cash available, are you independently wealthy or is it just all the wealthy teachers and their families that keep voting YES. There are so many people that are fed up with the school taxes but some how at the end of the day the YES votes win. Can you explain why the YES vote.
School budgets that are voted on are only a tiny sliver of the actual budget. Staffing levels and compensation levels aren't affected no matter which way the vote ends. When a budget is voted down the after school activities and other amenities that affect the kids are canceled, not the majority of the waste.
Pensions, salaries and other benefits are determined by the BOE and voters can't touch those numbers.
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