Post by dave on Sept 9, 2013 20:34:02 GMT -5
Would someone like to take over my "membership" in the NY State Property Tax Reform Coalition? It didn't cost me anything. They keep sending me emails of their successes. Or what they talk themselves into as successes. I wrote Carole (who penned the article below) a couple of years ago and told her I was convinced that the "Circuit Breaker" tax reform they championed was a great idea, but they were forgetting that NY state is run by people who have no intention of changing the tax structure until some dark night when about 4 million tax paying citizens show up at the capital carrying lit torches.
But she believes she can make a difference. Her group has evidently dropped the Circuit Breaker idea and is now pushing for income tax funded school budgets instead of property taxes.
Anyway ... she was successful in getting an article into the Albany Times Union recently and I'll post it here in deference to her continuing efforts.
The Observation Deck
A blog of opinions on local, state and national issues
Try a better tax solution
Sunday, September 8, 2013 by:TU Editorial Board
Our opinion (meaning that of the Times Useless): Rather than tinker with tax cuts, New York should overhaul its tax structure and fund public education fully through income tax. It could be a bipartisan solution.
Once again, there’s talk at the state Capitol about taxes. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he wants to cut them next year, when he also happens to be up for re-election. Senate Republicans say they’d like to cut taxes, too; not coincidentally, all the legislators’ terms also will be up. Backing them is the usual choir of various anti-tax and pro-business groups.
Before this gets too far along, we would offer that it’s the wrong conversation to be having. Rather than talk about tinkering a little with the current system — and entertaining some truly bad ideas in the process — the governor and Legislature should look at fundamentally changing the tax structure in New York.
It’s time to weigh substantially reducing one of the biggest tax burdens for many New Yorkers, school property taxes, without harming education in the process.
Rather than force school districts to levy heavy local taxes, the state should, once and for all, fully meet its obligation under the state constitution: to provide the children of New York with a sound, basic education. It should pay for that education through the most progressive tax at its disposal — the income tax.
Right now, support for K-12 education in New York is split largely between state aid and local property tax. The problem with the property tax is that the bill doesn’t much match a person’s ability to pay. This particularly hits senior citizens on fixed incomes, but there are also many working people across the state, from Long Island to Buffalo, struggling just to stay in their homes.
Paying for education entirely out of the income tax would change this equation. People would be paying the taxes that support education based on their ability to pay.
In many ways, this should be politically attractive on both sides of the aisle. It puts more progressivity in the tax system — which Democrats prefer — and would sharply reduce much-despised property taxes upstate and on Long Island — traditionally Republican strongholds. It would provide relief in a far more transparent and equitable way than some of the schemes that have been floated to give struggling areas help, such as Unshackle Upstate’s recent proposal to cut taxes only for people living in select areas of the state — a divisive idea that has so little chance of enactment as to warrant it to be labeled frivolous.
There are, of course, obstacles to this big concept. The state would need to establish a level of aid to fairly fund basic education. It would need to affirm local control of schools, and set a mechanism for allowing communities to enhance basic education at their own cost, if they choose, but in a way that doesn’t set in motion a new escalation of property taxes.
Most of all, state politicians would need to sell the public on the hardest thing of all — an income tax hike. If it’s done right, low- and middle-income New Yorkers would come out ahead, as the income tax would shift the burden of supporting schools more onto upper-income earners. Tax fairness would become the fundamental policy of state government.
Or perhaps the sell would come from the other direction. Perhaps it’s New Yorkers, forever grousing about their property taxes, who need to tell their politicians to really do something about them. As an election year approaches, you can bet they’ll be listening.
Carole Kraus
Co-founder
NY State Property Tax Reform Coalition
www.nyspropertytaxreform.org
info@nyspropertytaxreform.org
Did you notice this proposal would "set a mechanism for allowing communities to enhance basic education at
their own cost, if they choose, but in a way that doesn’t set in motion a
new escalation of property taxes." Like hell it won't escalate your taxes. This provision means if all your neighbors ... the ones who are in their thirties and forties and have children in the school system, who get out the vote for any and all school improvements to match the latest craze, like tripling the size of the swimming pool, building a golf course and taxpayer paid student junkets... if they get organized they can put the game back to square one and start pushing up our taxes.
But she believes she can make a difference. Her group has evidently dropped the Circuit Breaker idea and is now pushing for income tax funded school budgets instead of property taxes.
Anyway ... she was successful in getting an article into the Albany Times Union recently and I'll post it here in deference to her continuing efforts.
The Observation Deck
A blog of opinions on local, state and national issues
Try a better tax solution
Sunday, September 8, 2013 by:TU Editorial Board
Our opinion (meaning that of the Times Useless): Rather than tinker with tax cuts, New York should overhaul its tax structure and fund public education fully through income tax. It could be a bipartisan solution.
Once again, there’s talk at the state Capitol about taxes. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he wants to cut them next year, when he also happens to be up for re-election. Senate Republicans say they’d like to cut taxes, too; not coincidentally, all the legislators’ terms also will be up. Backing them is the usual choir of various anti-tax and pro-business groups.
Before this gets too far along, we would offer that it’s the wrong conversation to be having. Rather than talk about tinkering a little with the current system — and entertaining some truly bad ideas in the process — the governor and Legislature should look at fundamentally changing the tax structure in New York.
It’s time to weigh substantially reducing one of the biggest tax burdens for many New Yorkers, school property taxes, without harming education in the process.
Rather than force school districts to levy heavy local taxes, the state should, once and for all, fully meet its obligation under the state constitution: to provide the children of New York with a sound, basic education. It should pay for that education through the most progressive tax at its disposal — the income tax.
Right now, support for K-12 education in New York is split largely between state aid and local property tax. The problem with the property tax is that the bill doesn’t much match a person’s ability to pay. This particularly hits senior citizens on fixed incomes, but there are also many working people across the state, from Long Island to Buffalo, struggling just to stay in their homes.
Paying for education entirely out of the income tax would change this equation. People would be paying the taxes that support education based on their ability to pay.
In many ways, this should be politically attractive on both sides of the aisle. It puts more progressivity in the tax system — which Democrats prefer — and would sharply reduce much-despised property taxes upstate and on Long Island — traditionally Republican strongholds. It would provide relief in a far more transparent and equitable way than some of the schemes that have been floated to give struggling areas help, such as Unshackle Upstate’s recent proposal to cut taxes only for people living in select areas of the state — a divisive idea that has so little chance of enactment as to warrant it to be labeled frivolous.
There are, of course, obstacles to this big concept. The state would need to establish a level of aid to fairly fund basic education. It would need to affirm local control of schools, and set a mechanism for allowing communities to enhance basic education at their own cost, if they choose, but in a way that doesn’t set in motion a new escalation of property taxes.
Most of all, state politicians would need to sell the public on the hardest thing of all — an income tax hike. If it’s done right, low- and middle-income New Yorkers would come out ahead, as the income tax would shift the burden of supporting schools more onto upper-income earners. Tax fairness would become the fundamental policy of state government.
Or perhaps the sell would come from the other direction. Perhaps it’s New Yorkers, forever grousing about their property taxes, who need to tell their politicians to really do something about them. As an election year approaches, you can bet they’ll be listening.
Carole Kraus
Co-founder
NY State Property Tax Reform Coalition
www.nyspropertytaxreform.org
info@nyspropertytaxreform.org
Did you notice this proposal would "set a mechanism for allowing communities to enhance basic education at
their own cost, if they choose, but in a way that doesn’t set in motion a
new escalation of property taxes." Like hell it won't escalate your taxes. This provision means if all your neighbors ... the ones who are in their thirties and forties and have children in the school system, who get out the vote for any and all school improvements to match the latest craze, like tripling the size of the swimming pool, building a golf course and taxpayer paid student junkets... if they get organized they can put the game back to square one and start pushing up our taxes.
