The city of Albany had the highest "effective" property tax rate among upstate's five largest cities in 2013, according to analysis by the Empire Center. The think tank posted new data for its Benchmarking New York database today, which compares cities/towns/villages/school districts on a bunch of different measures for revenue and spending.
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Comments
I think the Empire Center should just change its name already to the Center for Complaining About NYS Taxes.
... said abc on Nov 24, 2014 at 5:21 PM | link
While I agree that taxes could be tamed, I think these kind of benchmarking schemes don’t paint the true picture (i.e. Albany’s taxes are high because its forced to exempt close to 2/3 of the property in its boundaries, just like small town Newcomb in the Adirondacks is prevented from developing on much of its land in order to support aging infrastructure). Furthermore, when comparing jurisdictions, whether within NY or comparing NY against other states, one needs to add more than just taxes to the basket. My parents moved to Florida briefly, but ended up back in NYS. Yes, property taxes were lower, but their hurricane insurance premiums and water bills (despite being surrounded by water, Florida has a huge water crisis) blew right past their tax bills in good ol’ nanny state NY, without the benefits those “high†taxes provide.
... said Rich on Nov 25, 2014 at 9:05 AM | link