Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Key word is rate, as home prices/assessments may go up even if the rate goes down. In turn, you may end up paying more for that reason.
This is noted in the article: "When Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz rolled out his 2023 budget proposal, he highlighted the fact that the countywide property tax rate would drop to the lowest level in modern history for the second year in a row.
Yet despite this fact, county property taxes actually rose in more than half of all county towns and cities, according to data provided by the county's Department of Real Property Tax Services.
This sounds contradictory, but it's actually common for any county or local government that charges taxes on the property people own.
In Erie County, Amherst property owners saw their tax rates rise by nearly 8%. Buffalo and the towns of Tonawanda, Lancaster and Newstead saw their property rates rise by between 3% and 5%. Meanwhile, the Town of Cheektowaga saw a property tax rate decline of 9%, while Concord and Clarence saw tax rates fall by 4%. A few towns saw barely any change at all. Overall, county tax rates fell in 11 of 28 communities.
How can some tax rates go up and some tax rates go down when – as Poloncarz points out – the county's overall property tax rate has fallen to the lowest recorded level in decades?
The answer is complicated.
Property taxes 101
Property taxes are charged by local governments and school districts. The property tax rate roughly refers to the amount of taxes a government collects for every $1,000 a property is worth. So, if you own a home assessed at $100,000, and the tax rate is $2, then you'll pay an annual property tax bill of $200.
If the property tax rate goes down, and the value of your home stays the same or loses value, then your tax bill will go down. But if your home increases in value – which tends to happen – then even if the tax rate goes down, you may still wind up paying more out of pocket.
As long as a community's property values rise, local governments can raise more tax revenue without raising the tax rate at all. In fact, counties like Erie can cut tax rates and still rake in millions more every year.
Over the last decade, Erie County's economic growth has led to property values rising by $27 billion overall, according to the county's assessment records.
That makes tax rate numbers misleading. Erie County tax rates have either stayed the same or fallen nearly every year since 2009. Yet, the county collects about $106 million more in property taxes now than it collected back then. (Hence, why "popular" areas even in the South can have property taxes close to or even on par/higher than those up here due to high median home prices)
The fact is, county government spending – like most local governments – has risen every year to cover wages and public services under both Democratic and Republican leadership, and county tax collections have risen along with it. To complicate matters further, the county also tacks additional charges onto property tax bills for certain community college fees and Erie County Board of Elections operations.
That's why the better gauge of whether your property tax bill will rise is to know the county's "tax levy," the total amount of taxes collected by a government. (Most tax revenue for governments are from sales tax)
Erie County will collect $9.7 million more in property taxes this year than it did last year, as part of the 2023 tax levy, an increase of 3%. That's a bigger increase than 2021 and 2022, when more federal stimulus money flowed into local governments, but less than in 2020.
Taxes and politics
Erie County elected leaders, past and present, have claimed credit for either cutting spending or lowering taxes even though the annual amount collected in property taxes has risen every year since 2004. They refer to the falling "tax rate."
For instance, in unveiling his proposed 2023 budget, Poloncarz pointed out that Erie County's tax rate is the lowest of all Western New York counties and lower than other upstate urban counties, including Monroe and Onondaga counties. He also noted that the county's budgets have also consistently remained under the state-imposed tax cap, and the county's credit ratings and overall financial health remain strong.
Meanwhile, his political opponents tend to talk about how incumbents have raised taxes. They refer to the rising "tax levy" and complain that local residents are overtaxed, especially when given the county's budget surpluses. That was especially true in 2021, when the county was looking at a year-end budget surplus of more than $74 million. Opponents argue that a county can easily afford to give more taxpayers a break.
This year will be no exception, especially since Poloncarz is running for re-election, as are all 11 county legislators.
In each of the last two years, Republican-supported legislators unsuccessfully pushed to lower the overall tax levy and provide "meaningful property tax relief" to residents in light of the record levels of outside federal funding the county has received and high year-end surpluses. Poloncarz and Democratic legislators, meanwhile, have talked about the need for greater community investment and support as the county emerges from Covid-19, and questioned the sustainability of lower taxes.
Assessments vs. true value
When the 2023 budget was approved by the County Legislature, the administration said the county's tax rate would fall from $4.32 to $3.92. But this is a reference to the "full value tax rate," the rate the county would charge property owners across the board, assuming all homes are assessed at what they are really worth.
In reality, few properties have assessments that match their true market values.
Many local governments do not reassess their residents’ properties on a regular basis because it is costly, time-consuming and politically unpopular. In most communities, homes are worth more, and sell for more, than what they are assessed at by their city or town.
So the state tries to close that gap with an "equalization rate" that is dropped into the tax rate calculations for every community every year.
When leaders of thriving communities refuse to reassess property values for a long time, a disparity grows between a property's government-assessed value and its true market value. In such communities, changes in tax rates become an almost meaningless indicator of how much more or less a taxpayer must fork over in property taxes because of the state equalization rate.
For instance, the Town of Aurora has gone so long without reassessing its properties that it has an equalization of 26.5 – as in, the state considers homes in Aurora to be assessed at only 26.5% of their true worth. For that reason, Aurora has the county's second highest tax rate of $13.85.
While that is nearly three times higher than Buffalo city's tax rate, Aurora's county property tax rate fell slightly this year, while Buffalo residents saw their tax rates rise. As a result, the owners of a home with an unchanged assessment of $100,000 would have received a tax cut of $9 if they lived in the Town of Aurora and tax hike of $14 if they lived in Buffalo.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
