A combination of decades of free-wheeling generosity by local school boards, pressure to increase teacher pay from politically powerful unions, and state laws and policies that make it impossible for districts to rein in spending has gotten New York to the point where it spends more per student and offers the highest teacher salaries of any other state in the country. Read More
Among New York school districts with enrollments of 4,000 or more, the list of highest property taxes per pupil is what you’d expect — topped by Great Neck, Scarsdale, Syosset and Bedford. In fifth place is a somewhat less wealthy outlier: the Northport-East Northport district. It will raise $28,556 per pupil in property taxes next year, based on data from the state’s 2018-19 Property Tax Report Card. That’s 57 percent above the Suffolk County average. Read More
Molinaro’s rhetoric made it all sound obvious — and easy. In fact, New York faces real financial constraints that’ll limit options for whoever occupies the governor’s office starting next January. Read More
On Monday, as Empire Center fiscal expert E.J. McMahon noted, Census numbers pegged New York’s 2016 per-student outlays at $22,366, or nearly twice the $11,762-per-student national average. And the gap, McMahon adds, has only been growing. Read More
"I think the tax cap has induced a sense of complacency," said E.J. McMahon, founder of the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany. "It’s seen as automatically keeping a fairly tight lid on the levy. But at the first sign of fiscal stress and added pressure for higher taxes, I'd expect turnout to rebound." Read More
New York doled out $22,366 for each elementary and secondary schoolkid — 90 percent higher than the national average of $11,762, according to Empire Center research director E.J. McMahon. Read More
The region’s highest 2017 effective tax rate - $62.95 per $1,000 of home value - was shouldered by Village of Liberty homeowners, according to an Empire Center report released Monday. Read More
"Number one, this money is not being used to fund public priorities. Number two, it's using borrowed money and forcing future taxpayers to pick up the tab for politicians to win political points today," said Ken Girardin, policy analyst at the right-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More