Why Are Property Taxes In New York So High? (Medford: real estate, HOA)

[rocafeller05]

When you say "all north east" what do you mean exactly? Your not including Pennsylvania, right?

Originally Posted by AlexisT

Yes, but taxes all over the Northeast are high. High costs and high salaries are by far the biggest contributor.

[Smash255]

NY as a whole gets much less tax revenue back from the federal govt than they pay in. This is true for the northeast as a whole as well, while the south gets back much more from the federal government than it pays in.

Schools generally have too many admins and too many layers, the high cost of living here also results in higher teacher salaries. Long Island because it generally has higher income levels than the rest of the country tends to get even a lower % of the money paid in back. Explosion in health care costs have also resulted in higher property taxes, the non funding of NCLB is another culprit. Also the fact that Long Island as a whole has among the best schools in the entire country is going to result in higher taxes, and about 2/3 of the property taxes here on LI are school taxes.

[WIHS2006]

The taxes in mu community are so high because of these 3 institutions, all of which need to be abolished and merged or heavily reformed.


the volunteer fire service

http://www.coplogic.com/news/suffolk-county-ny-police-department-chooses/image (broken link)
Suffolk County Police Department

http://www.wi.k12.ny.us/images/1wisquare.gif (broken link)
West Islip Public Schools


Reform the volunteer fire service into a 75% career/25% volunteer force organized on the township level; ex. Town of Islip Fire Department.

Abolish the county police department and go back to township police departments with the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office and the New York State Police providing any necessary support and services.

Reform the school districts into township level school districts; ex. Town of Islip Public Schools

[AlexisT]

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

When you say "all north east" what do you mean exactly? Your not including Pennsylvania, right?

Parts of PA do pay high taxes. NEPA doesn't, but around Philly it's not that cheap. I've read threads where people in Delaware County say they're paying $7K on average houses. PA works out cheaper in part because the state income tax is lower (one calculator said we'd be several hundred better off a month there) though Philly has a wage tax.

NJ property tax is higher than NY, and has a hefty graduated income tax as well. CT, MA, NH are all high. I don't know anyone in RI.

All northeastern states rank high on the tax burden list, though NH has no income tax which does help.

ETA: here's a thread from the Philly forum comparing taxes on both sides of the Delaware:

Penn and NJ taxation comparison

[hotkarl]

Rhode Island is up there with the property taxes too. I've also heard RI has wicked corruption problem as well.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by AlexisT

The person in Bayside is paying less because they're also paying city income tax (2.9 - 3.6%). if we paid local income tax, we could have lower property taxes as well. The overall tax burden in NYC is not lower, except possibly for retirees who are property-rich and cash poor.

NYC generates plenty of commercial tax revenue, and the slide is one of the reasons the state is in such trouble now--the budget was reliant on all the Wall Street revenue.

I forgot about that

[rocafeller05]

Yeah, I guess it depends on where you are in Del. Co.? My family pays on average $2200/year for their 2000 sq. ft home on a .25 acre in Del. Co.

Originally Posted by AlexisT

Parts of PA do pay high taxes. NEPA doesn't, but around Philly it's not that cheap. I've read threads where people in Delaware County say they're paying $7K on average houses. PA works out cheaper in part because the state income tax is lower (one calculator said we'd be several hundred better off a month there) though Philly has a wage tax.

NJ property tax is higher than NY, and has a hefty graduated income tax as well. CT, MA, NH are all high. I don't know anyone in RI.

All northeastern states rank high on the tax burden list, though NH has no income tax which does help.

ETA: here's a thread from the Philly forum comparing taxes on both sides of the Delaware:

Penn and NJ taxation comparison

[BigMike50]

I just moved from Baldwin 1400 sft on a 50 x 100 (.10) lot paying $10,800 to Midlothian,VA 4900 sft on a .59 lot and paying $4,400 a year in taxes. Big difference from a house that was built in 1929 and one that was built in 2006. 3x's the house 5x's the lot and 60% less in taxes.

[Elke Mariotti]

I own a condo in Austin, TX, and my RE taxes (in addition to HOA fees) are just under $4,200... considering that prices are a lot lower than here, that's a lot of money for taxes IMHO

[okaydorothy]

Out here in Medford we are paying the highest fire tax. Our fire tax is over $2000 per year.

Add that to a total of over $10,000 in taxes per year.

Now add the fact that my kids go to parochial school and we get no credit for that on our taxes. Yes, its my choice to send them there, but if the school districts was better, I would send them there. So in a way, I have no choice

So in essence, the school district gets a free ride on my kids!! The fire taxes get a free ride on our development as it has been here once in the past year.

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