Your Chamber has joined with the state’s largest business lobby to create a statewide alliance advocating for a property tax cap.
All across the Southern Tier as well as the rest of New York people are feeling the effects of ever- increasing property tax. Businesses, that pay 62% of all property tax, leave because they can no longer afford to stay. The jobs go with them. Attracting new business is infinitely more difficult. Residents of our area either leave or move just across the border to Pennsylvania.We can’t continue down this road.
New York has earned a deserved reputation across the country as a high-tax state, discouraging business investment and depressing our Upstate economy.
We agree with the Business Council when they say that “a solution is in sight. Governor David Paterson has a plan to cap school property tax levies in New York State. This cap would limit the growth in school property tax levies to 4 percent or to 120 percent of the rate of inflation, whichever is less.”
New York State’s local taxes are the highest in America — 79% above the national average. Since 2001, property taxes have grown 7% annually. Property tax levies are rising at more than twice the rate of inflation and salary growth. Since 2001, school property taxes have increased by more than 50%, which is more than twice the rate of either inflation or salary growth.
A tax cap is the most effective way to slow the growth in property taxes. Massachusetts is a stellar example of how a property tax cap can work.
Massachusetts implemented a cap in 1980. At the time, Massachusetts and New York were both among the highest-taxed states in the nation. Today, Massachusetts is 33rd. New York is still number one.
A property tax cap is strong medicine but is absolutely required to force hard but necessary choices. No matter what else happens, the choice of raising property taxes above a capped amount, without the express approval of voters, should simply no longer be an option.
Join the grassroots coalition in support of a statewide property tax cap in New York and click on to: http://www.taxcapnow.org/
Lawrence H. Brinker, Esq.
Director, Government Relations & Workforce Initiatives
Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce
PO Box 995
Binghamton, NY 13902-0995
Tel:Â (607) 772-8863 Ext 316
Mobile: (607) 348-4764
Fax: (607) 722-4513
www.greaterbinghamtonchamber.com
www.unshackleupstate.com