ALBANY, March 30 — Middle-class homeowners in Westchester County will get nearly $3,000. In Albany, they will receive $994, and in Erie County, $842.

That is a sampling of the tax relief that homeowners will receive under a plan hammered out this week by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and legislative leaders that would add $1.3 billion to the state’s School Tax Relief program, known as STAR. Under the plan, the state would spend nearly $5 billion on STAR in the coming year.

The agreement, which emerged during state budget negotiations, would direct more relief — through rebates and property tax adjustments — to middle- and lower-income taxpayers than in the past. The largest benefit would go to homeowners with annual incomes up to $120,000 in the downstate region and up to $90,000 upstate.

“People come to New York and look at the price of a house and say, ‘Gee, the price is good, but the property tax hit is troublesome,’ ” Mr. Spitzer said on Friday. “So when we begin to ratchet down on that property tax bite, people will find it more economically viable to stay here.”

In New York City, where property tax rates are low because city income taxes are the principal means of financing schools, homeowners have received relatively small benefits from STAR. For that reason, the Legislature agreed as part of the deal to increase the personal income tax credit to $290 from $230 for married couples filing joint returns, and to $145 from $115 for individuals.

It is far from clear that the increased benefits will address longstanding criticisms about STAR. Many homeowners have expressed dismay that their property taxes have continued to rise, often sharply, despite the program. Critics on the left assert that STAR gives too much money to higher-income neighborhoods; critics on the right say it has done nothing to control property taxes, despite doling out huge sums of money.

And some independent analysts say that STAR, created in the late 1990s, has had the perverse effect of encouraging localities to raise property taxes. Since 1998, property tax levies in New York State have risen 41 percent, nearly twice the rate of inflation.

“It’s an inefficient use of funds that basically encourages what it’s supposedly trying to fix,” said Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative group. “When you subsidize something, you get more of it.”

STAR exempts at least $30,000 of a home’s value from tax, an amount that can be higher, and sometimes far higher, in counties where the home values are above the statewide average. Homeowners who are 65 or older receive higher benefits.

Initially, STAR aid was sent directly to school districts and was used to adjust property tax bills. But starting last year, the Legislature also sent rebate checks directly to homeowners. The rebates would roughly double under the new agreement, to $1.3 billion. Homeowners will continue to receive adjustments to their property tax bills. People who have already enrolled in the STAR program with their local assessors will have to apply for the new rebate checks through the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance.

According to numbers released by Governor Spitzer’s office, homeowners who live in Westchester County, where property taxes are particularly high, and who earn up to $120,000 would get $1,094 rebate checks and another $1,823 deducted from their property tax bills. The agreement calls for taxpayers making more than $250,000 to receive no rebates.

Some homeowners were not impressed with the rebate checks last year.

“We need real relief,” said Laurann Pandelakis, a former teacher living in Manhasset who received a $300 check last year. In the past seven years, her annual property taxes have risen to $13,500 from $6,000, causing her to become an outspoken critic of school spending.

“It’s insulting to people who are seeing increases of 6 or 7 percent,” Ms. Pandelakis said, referring to the spending increase projected in her district this year.

Studies show that school districts spend the largest portion of their budgets on personnel costs, supporting teacher salaries that are among the highest in the nation. Unions have been strong supporters of STAR.

School board presidents say that while they do not raise taxes because of STAR, the program makes it easier for homeowners to swallow increases.

Read article here

You may also like

State’s Growing Budget Hole Threatens NYC Jobs and Aid as Congress Takes a Holiday

“The biggest problem for the state is the enormous, recurring structural budget gap starting next year and into the future,” said E.J. McMahon of the conservative-leaning Empire Center. “Cuomo clearly hopes that starting in 2021, (Democratic presidential candidate Joseph) Biden and a Democratic Congress will provide states and local government a couple of year’s worth of added stimulus. Read More

How Andrew Cuomo became ‘maybe the most powerful governor’ in U.S.

Ed McKinley ALBANY — When the New York Constitution was reorganized nearly 100 years ago to give the governor more power over the budget process,  noted there was a risk of making “the governor a czar." M Read More

Study disputes Cuomo on Trump tax package; experts say it’s complicated

Michael Gormley ALBANY — A new study by a conservative think tank says President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law gave most New Yorkers a tax cut, even as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo insists on repealing the measure because he says it will cost New Yo Read More

Empire Center sues Department of Health over nursing home records

Johan Sheridan ALBANY, N.Y. () — The Empire Center filed a  against the state Department of Health on Friday. “This case isn’t about assigning blame or embarrassing political leaders,” said Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s Read More

Good news: That New York pork isn’t going out the door after all

The Empire Center first reported Tuesday that grants — 226 of them, totaling $46 million, to recipients selected by the governor and individual state lawmakers — seemed to still be going ahead. Read More

New York Lawmakers Seek Independent Probe of Nursing-Home Coronavirus Deaths

With lingering questions about how the novel coronavirus killed thousands of New Yorkers who lived in nursing homes, a group of state lawmakers is pushing to create an independent commission to get answers from the state Department of Health. Read More

Policy analyst: Cuomo wrong to write-off nursing home criticism as political conspiracy

“The importance of discussing this and getting the true facts out is to understand what did and didn’t happen so we can learn from it in case this happens again,” Hammond said. Read More

EDITORIAL: Nursing home report requires a second opinion

No doubt, the Health Department and the governor would like this report to be the final word on the subject. But if it’s all the same with them, we’d still like a truly independent review. Read More