A few hours after Governor David Patterson announced his plan for massive cuts in funding as a result of the current state of the economy in New York, another hearing was held in Syracuse to discuss a cap on property tax rates. This hearing is the 14th to take place on this topic in the past few months.
At the hearing, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi exclaimed “Property taxes are crushing us here in New York State. We need the State Senate and the State Assembly to take serious action to address the property tax problem we face throughout New York…this is the worst economic crisis in this country since the Great Depression.”
He continued, by saying “There's an old saying that you can't waste a good crisis. Well, we've got a crisis now. It's a real crisis. An economic crisis that's affecting all of us. We should see this as an opportunity to address the property tax problem that we've faced for over a decade now.”
Matt Driscoll, Mayor of Syracuse, disagreed: “If cuts in these schedule payments indeed become a reality, the pressure to increase property taxes to maintain existing service levels will increase significantly,” and William Meyer, Onondaga County Legislature Chairman, backed him up: “In every local government and school district, the property tax is the tax of last resort. Minus all other revenue, we must raise property taxes.”
Who do you agree with? Are the property tax cuts a good or a bad idea, and why? Click on “Comments” below and tell us what you think.
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