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Post by dgriffin on Mar 17, 2009 21:54:25 GMT -5
Below is a chart showing the change in incomes in New York State. Most of the increases have taken place at the high end of the income spectrum. The chart appeared in a presentation in Albany that argued for eliminating the STAR program and replacing it with circuit-breaker style tax caps, which would result in less of a tax break for those with higher incomes. The presentation is by Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute and is entitled, "Exploring progressive changes to New York State’s personal income tax system; Testimony presented to the Select Committee on Budget and Tax Reform. It's a long but interesting read, and may be found at: www.fiscalpolicy.org/MauroBudgetTestimony_20090312.pdf
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 17, 2009 22:02:06 GMT -5
A summary of the Omnibus Tax Reform bill is online at: www.omnibustaxsolution.org/summary.htmlThe bill has no sponsor yet. On the above web page, you can see how much you would save in property taxes. The main objection to this bill is that it does nothing to address spending. However, proponents say it is necessary to quickly put in place caps to protect people's homesteads, and to address spending in the next go around. Increased costs of medical services, necessary repairs and updates to infrastructure, dwindling incomes, skyrocketing home prices (aside from the recent and temporary drop in home values) have all conspired to push New York State and local taxes through the roof in a lethal dose that will soon begin to put older (and some younger) residents out of their life long homes and push them entirely out of the state. The premise of the Omnibus Bill is that it would be paid for by elimination of the current STAR program. Proponents of the Omnibus Bill argue that eliminating the STAR program will curtail property tax breaks given to taxpayers at the high end of the income spectrum and increase them dramatically to taxpayers in the under $100K income range. Evidently, the Omnibus Bill would take little baskets around amongst the rich and collect their little tithes of STAR loaves and fishes to create bigger baskets of loaves and fishes for us po' folk who earn under $100k. Damn, I'd like to see the math on that!
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 18, 2009 9:14:00 GMT -5
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 19, 2009 9:45:30 GMT -5
NIAGARA-WHEATFIELD: Residents react to school auditSchool board members defend excess fundsBy Amy Wallace Niagara GazetteMarch 18, 2009 Taxpayers in the Niagara-Wheatfield School District didn’t mince words Wednesday in expressing their outrage over a recent state comptroller’s audit of the district that it had not prepared “reasonable budgets” and has close to $8 million in excess funds that should’ve been used to benefit taxpayers.“I feel that the business manager should be fired and that any board members who knew about this should resign,” resident Rosemary Warren said during a school board meeting. “You are a tainted group. Maybe school districts should be run by a hard control board.” Residents who spoke at the meeting cited the increase in their tax bills even though there has been a decrease in the tax rate in the district during this time period. ]“This over budgeting is making seniors have to keep working to just pay their school taxes,” Russell Brumby said. “I pay more in school tax today than I did five or six years ago. This to me is sloppy work. It shows no effort at all on your part.” Even with the surplus funds, the district’s tax levy has increased from $23 million to more than $26 million since 2004, the report found.“This school board just amazes me from what I read in the paper,” Robert Schimschack said. “I really do believe there should be some resignations.”
Schimschack suggested that the district cut salaries 15 percent across the board or have a freeze on pay increases.
“We’re out of control,” he said. “These are bad times and we’re handing out raises. You’re writing checks that the taxpayers can’t pay anymore.”www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local_story_077223050.html
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