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Did I say a million dollar house for 90K? No, this is what I said:
Hard to feel bad for someone who's sitting a million dollar house when they're sitting in on that cost $90K.
Like I said, I live in NY. Believe it or not, there's far more to the state than NYC and LI. The rest of us also had huge increases in school budgets. You have no one to blame for yourselves. You VOTED for those increases! You kept the school boards who came up with those budgets. We reject budgets in my part of NY when we need to. Consolidations are being looked into and some have happened already.
You and I absolutely agree on the school budget issue, and the reason they're as bloated as they are down here. The districts put up these crazy budgets and then the parents are so spooked by the possibility that there won't be after-school activities till 5pm, or enough sports to look good on Junior's college resume, that they vote Yes in far larger numbers than the more responsible people who vote No. It doesn't help matters when district superintendents are drawing salaries well into the six figures, and then blame the increases on the cost of benefits mandated by the teachers union (which is a whole other can of worms in itself).
We also are in agreement on consolidations, which for the same reasons as above are looked here at with the level of horror that is usually reserved for a plague of locusts hovering above an East End vineyard. Heaven forbid that one of those gilt edged superintendents might lose his or her salary, or that Junior might have to be bussed further away than 3 miles.
The truth is that I would LOVE to stay in NY. I would rather move to a different part of NY than somewhere down south, or into Tornado Alley or somewhere so far north that the only seasons are are Late Fall, Winter, and Construction. Your part of NY sounds sane and sensible; would you mind telling me what county you're in?
(apologies for going off topic; I will now return to our regularly scheduled thread responses, LOL)
Like I said, I live in NY. Believe it or not, there's far more to the state than NYC and LI. The rest of us also had huge increases in school budgets. You have no one to blame for yourselves. You VOTED for those increases! You kept the school boards who came up with those budgets. We reject budgets in my part of NY when we need to. Consolidations are being looked into and some have happened already.
Nope. It's the well to do young families that vote in these huge increases, thinking it's gonna help their kid be smarter. What it does is make for some good retirements. The school budget here is TWO THIRDS of the entire town budget, when police personnel make a pittance. Town politics.
The school budget here is TWO THIRDS of the entire town budget, when police personnel make a pittance. Town politics.
Same ratio here. School budget is typically between 60% and 65% of the entire property tax bill. The three largest taxing entities on my bill are school taxes ($5450), police which is a County force, not town ($1390) and the total of all town taxes (a bit over $1200). The remaining tax items are small in comparison to those three.
Nope. It's the well to do young families that vote in these huge increases, thinking it's gonna help their kid be smarter. What it does is make for some good retirements. The school budget here is TWO THIRDS of the entire town budget, when police personnel make a pittance. Town politics.
It's far from just the young families voting for these ridiculous school budgets. There are plenty of people who don't have kids in the schools who say yes to the budgets because "it's the right thing to do." No matter that grand and grandpa are on a budget. It's all for the kids!
Where I live, school budgets are completely separate from the town budget. They are two separate taxing entities. I don't have a police force. We have around 3,300 people in town. The sheriff and state police are plenty. The city next to me - it's literally .1 miles down the street - has a police force, 52% off properties are off the tax roll, and has a whooping population of about 13K. Their taxes are $16 per thousand more. Neither one of us has trash pick up so we both have to pay for it. Town residents can buy permits for the town transfer station. My recycling costs $10 a year. My trash is a punch card. I get 52 punches (5 bags per punch) for $75. I can use that card in 6 weeks or 6 years. This is far cheaper than the 50 bucks a month for trash pick up.
Not all towns have the politics you're speaking about. Many don't. They tend to be smaller and in out of the way places. Places were people speak up and put their foot down.
You and I absolutely agree on the school budget issue, and the reason they're as bloated as they are down here. The districts put up these crazy budgets and then the parents are so spooked by the possibility that there won't be after-school activities till 5pm, or enough sports to look good on Junior's college resume, that they vote Yes in far larger numbers than the more responsible people who vote No. It doesn't help matters when district superintendents are drawing salaries well into the six figures, and then blame the increases on the cost of benefits mandated by the teachers union (which is a whole other can of worms in itself).
We also are in agreement on consolidations, which for the same reasons as above are looked here at with the level of horror that is usually reserved for a plague of locusts hovering above an East End vineyard. Heaven forbid that one of those gilt edged superintendents might lose his or her salary, or that Junior might have to be bussed further away than 3 miles.
The truth is that I would LOVE to stay in NY. I would rather move to a different part of NY than somewhere down south, or into Tornado Alley or somewhere so far north that the only seasons are are Late Fall, Winter, and Construction. Your part of NY sounds sane and sensible; would you mind telling me what county you're in?
(apologies for going off topic; I will now return to our regularly scheduled thread responses, LOL)
I did leave NY a few years ago. I went to SC all because of the cheap taxes and wanting out of NY. Two years later and I couldn't move back fast enough. I grew up in the Albany area. I'm now in the Finger Lakes. The taxes out here are far less than Albany. Real estate costs significantly less as well. It's over an hour to the big cities - Rochester and Syracuse.
Cheap taxes gets you what you pay for - bad roads, uneducated locals, frequent power outages, etc.
The school districts that have rejected consolidation will be back it in a year or two. One of the biggest concerned I kept hearing over and over is the football team. What happens to football is the schools merge? Because you know how with more kids, there were would be fewer sports? : smack: And god forbid Junior has to ride to bus an extra 10 minutes. Without mergers, many of the small school districts here won't exist in a few years. They'll be bankrupt. And they are very public about this. The parents who are worried about football and school buses won't be so worried about football when this happens.
Same ratio here. School budget is typically between 60% and 65% of the entire property tax bill. The three largest taxing entities on my bill are school taxes ($5450), police which is a County force, not town ($1390) and the total of all town taxes (a bit over $1200). The remaining tax items are small in comparison to those three.
And our 66% for the school budget does NOT include the cost of building an entirely unneeded new middle school on a new site. Can't wait to open my tax bill when that gets going.
ETA: So, back on topic, I can now understand why financial is edging ahead of the other factors. And after this winter, so is weather. Looks like family may take a back seat to these.
I did leave NY a few years ago. I went to SC all because of the cheap taxes and wanting out of NY. Two years later and I couldn't move back fast enough. I grew up in the Albany area. I'm now in the Finger Lakes. The taxes out here are far less than Albany. Real estate costs significantly less as well. It's over an hour to the big cities - Rochester and Syracuse.
Are you retired? Are there prop tax breaks for seniors where you are now?
One good thing about the NYS senior breaks is that they do not have an asset qualification as well, as some states' do, nor is there a residential waiting period to qualify. I believe DE's residency requirement is 3 years and one of the other states I looked into has a TEN year state residency combined with a five year ownership of the house that the person is claiming the property tax break for.
NY's residency requirement for seniors is that it must be your primary residence (not a second or vacation home) and that you must have owned it for at least 12 months prior to the time you file for the reduction. However there is a loophole in that whereby if you are essentially "transferring" the senior tax break directly from one NY primary residence to another in a sell/buy scenario, the 12-month residency wait in the second home can be waived.
You know what puzzles me about the garbage thing? Apparantly LI is better than many other areas as regards frequency of pickups, etc (2x week household, 1x week recycleables, two 6-week-long Saturday unlimited leaf and brush pickups a year [fall and spring], and free on-call pickup of large items) and yet we don't seem to pay any more for this service in our taxes than some other areas do by having to pay a carting company directly. A typical garbage collection fee (within the taxes) for a 1-family house is between $300-$400 per year depending on the township one lives in. You mentioned that it would be $50/month for trash pickup so that's a great example; how often would they pick up the trash if you did have that?
The only thing our towns won't collect is grass clippings. They do have special weekends during the year called STOP (Stop Throwing Out Pollutants) where homeowners can bring things like batteries, chemical and paint containers, etc directly to the town facility for special disposal. No charge for doing that.
I'm single so proximity to family is the most important factor. I'm not going to relocate to a place where I don't know anybody - not that adventuresome or masochistic. Given that I have a large family so a few choices of where to relocate (although most of them live in the same state but it is a very large state), the second most important factor is weather. If I had a partner, weather would be the most important factor.
I'm with you. What I would like to be able to do is, rent a place somewhere warm just for January and February, but then spend the rest of the year near my family.
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What it does is make for some good retirements. The school budget here is TWO THIRDS of the entire town budget, when police personnel make a pittance. Town politics.
