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With New Yorkers preparing to vote on school budget propositions next Tuesday, the Empire Center today released the latest data for its Internet-based tool — BenchmarkingNY’s Property Taxes by Location — allowing taxpayers to compute and compare total school district, municipal and county tax burdens in thousands of communities across the state.

The Empire Center also issued a summary report ranking the “Top 20” and “Bottom 20” effective tax rates in every region of the state, along with a ranking of effective tax rates in cities. The rankings are based on data from the state comptroller’s office and New York State Association of Realtors Housing Survey.

“School district taxes typically make up the largest portion of property tax bills, which is why it is so empowering for users to be able to compare specific school districts, by town or other municipality, to one another,” said Empire Center director Tim Hoefer.

The Empire Center’s property tax database excludes only New York City and Nassau County, which use complex property classification systems that can make the effective tax rates especially misleading, Hoefer said.

As reflected in the Empire Center rankings, New York’s highest effective property tax rates are imposed in cities and rural areas with low property values, while the lowest effective rates are found in resort communities and wealthy areas with very high property values.

Highlights of the report’s findings include the following:

Residents of the Village of Wellsville in Western New York bear the state’s heaviest property tax burden, with an effective rate of $62.63 per $1,000, which is more than 75 percent higher than the regional median.

The lowest-taxed community in the state is the Village of Sagaponack in Long Island’s Hamptons, which had an effective rate of just $1.24 per $1,000.

Binghamton is the most heavily taxed city in New York State, with an effective rate of $52.34 per $1,000.

The Rye School District portion of the City of Rye in Westchester County is the lowest-taxed area within cities, with an effective rate of $16.27 per $1,000.

The Property Taxes by Location and Local Government Budgets & Revenues tools are part of BenchmarkingNY, one of the many features of SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.

The Empire Center’s property tax rankings report can be downloaded here.

BenchmarkingNY and the “Property Taxes by Location” tool can be accessed here.