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10-4-09 NY Times 'As Property Taxes Become a Real Burden'
'...Of the 10 counties in the country with the highest median property taxes, every one is in New York or New Jersey...The problem is that many suburbanites who bought the luxury car a few years back now can barely afford the Saturn. The New Jersey race will provide some signals.'
NY TIMES: Our Towns - "As Property Taxes Become a Real Burden, Can Backlash Be Far Off?" [Sign in to RecommendTwitter Sign In to E-Mail Print Reprints ShareClose LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink] By PETER APPLEBOME Published: October 4, 2009 The list from census data isn’t all that surprising, but there it is. Westchester County, No. 1. Nassau, No. 2. Hunterdon and Bergen in New Jersey, Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. And so it goes. Of the 10 counties in the country with the highest median property taxes, every one is in New York or New Jersey. Or, to look at another table in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2008, of the 10 counties with the highest real estate taxes as a percentage of home value, all 10 are in New York. Or, to try one more, of the states with the highest median real estate taxes overall, New Jersey is No. 1, Connecticut is No. 2 and New York is No. 4 (tax-averse New Hampshire, which does not have a general sales tax or a personal income tax, sneaks in at No. 3). This, as anyone who breathes oxygen knows, is a high-tax region. But as Richard Nathan packed up his office on Friday after 45 years of studying or participating in state, local and federal tax and budget policies, he wondered if we had finally reached a breaking point. “I’m a little surprised there hasn’t been more heat and more agitation about tax caps and tax burdens in the way there has been in other parts of the country,” said Dr. Nathan, who retired as co-director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany. “I keep thinking, ‘When is this dog going to bark?’ And the numbers make you think it’s going to be soon. It just feels different right now.” You can hear some pretty distinct yips in the New Jersey governor’s race, where the property tax burden could help the Republicans win their first statewide race this decade (or perhaps not, if the Republican candidate, Christopher J. Christie, looks like he doesn’t have answers either). But whether there’s anything more than resigned gnashing of teeth by suburban swing voters in all three states will say a lot about the future of local politics and particularly the fate of Democrats in what are supposed to be the bluest of blue states. Property taxes are high around here in large part, of course, because property values are high. But there are several reasons why property taxes are higher here than in other costly parts of the country. Unlike California and Massachusetts, there are few, if any, longstanding brakes in place that kept property taxes down (and, in California, led to disastrous revenue shortages). Public employees unions are powerful and politically feared. And we’ve come to expect good services — top-rated schools, nearby police in little boutique towns — and have been willing to pay for them. The Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, whose “Fix Albany” mantra got him nowhere when he ran for governor against Eliot Spitzer in 2006 but looks pretty smart in retrospect, says that property taxes are inseparable from dysfunction in state government. He cites several reasons why property taxes are so high: unreasonable state mandates piled on local governments; income tax dollars inequitably distributed back to local governments; far too many local governments — more than 10,500 in New York — that need to be consolidated or eliminated; fraud and waste; and economic stagnation producing no expansion in the property tax base. You could throw in crippling Medicaid costs and unsustainable pension costs. “It’s the No. 1 issue,” he said. “People have reached their breaking point. But we still have a long way to go in connecting the dots between dysfunction in state government and high property taxes.” Still, breaking point or not, who knows where this goes? A Proposition 13-style temper tantrum? Painful cuts — meaning teachers and police? Throw out the bums — most likely Democrats, who could be fat targets in an antitax backlash? Lots of grumbling but living with an increasingly unaffordable status quo? Gerald Prante, an economist with the Tax Foundation in Washington, said at least people feel they get something tangible from their local taxes and can tolerate them if they believe they’re getting what they paid for. “If I told you I spent $40,000 on a car, it doesn’t tell you much unless you know what kind of car,” he said. “If it’s a Lamborghini, it was probably a good deal. If it was a Saturn, it’s not such a good deal.” Thus, for all the angst, the fact that most local school budgets still routinely pass indicates we might be more likely to grumble than to cut close to home. The problem is that many suburbanites who bought the luxury car a few years back now can barely afford the Saturn. The New Jersey race will provide some signals. Whether Republicans regain control of the Nassau County Legislature might provide some more. But the status quo can’t last, and if there’s a huge backlash, Democrats have the most to fear politically. “The longer we wait, the harder the reckoning is going to be,” Dr. Nathan said. E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com
'...Of the 10 counties in the country with the highest median property taxes, every one is in New York or New Jersey...The problem is that many suburbanites who bought the luxury car a few years back now can barely afford the Saturn. The New Jersey race will provide some signals.'
NY TIMES: Our Towns - "As Property Taxes Become a Real Burden, Can Backlash Be Far Off?" [Sign in to RecommendTwitter Sign In to E-Mail Print Reprints ShareClose LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink] By PETER APPLEBOME Published: October 4, 2009 The list from census data isn’t all that surprising, but there it is. Westchester County, No. 1. Nassau, No. 2. Hunterdon and Bergen in New Jersey, Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. And so it goes. Of the 10 counties in the country with the highest median property taxes, every one is in New York or New Jersey. Or, to look at another table in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2008, of the 10 counties with the highest real estate taxes as a percentage of home value, all 10 are in New York. Or, to try one more, of the states with the highest median real estate taxes overall, New Jersey is No. 1, Connecticut is No. 2 and New York is No. 4 (tax-averse New Hampshire, which does not have a general sales tax or a personal income tax, sneaks in at No. 3). This, as anyone who breathes oxygen knows, is a high-tax region. But as Richard Nathan packed up his office on Friday after 45 years of studying or participating in state, local and federal tax and budget policies, he wondered if we had finally reached a breaking point. “I’m a little surprised there hasn’t been more heat and more agitation about tax caps and tax burdens in the way there has been in other parts of the country,” said Dr. Nathan, who retired as co-director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany. “I keep thinking, ‘When is this dog going to bark?’ And the numbers make you think it’s going to be soon. It just feels different right now.” You can hear some pretty distinct yips in the New Jersey governor’s race, where the property tax burden could help the Republicans win their first statewide race this decade (or perhaps not, if the Republican candidate, Christopher J. Christie, looks like he doesn’t have answers either). But whether there’s anything more than resigned gnashing of teeth by suburban swing voters in all three states will say a lot about the future of local politics and particularly the fate of Democrats in what are supposed to be the bluest of blue states. Property taxes are high around here in large part, of course, because property values are high. But there are several reasons why property taxes are higher here than in other costly parts of the country. Unlike California and Massachusetts, there are few, if any, longstanding brakes in place that kept property taxes down (and, in California, led to disastrous revenue shortages). Public employees unions are powerful and politically feared. And we’ve come to expect good services — top-rated schools, nearby police in little boutique towns — and have been willing to pay for them. The Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, whose “Fix Albany” mantra got him nowhere when he ran for governor against Eliot Spitzer in 2006 but looks pretty smart in retrospect, says that property taxes are inseparable from dysfunction in state government. He cites several reasons why property taxes are so high: unreasonable state mandates piled on local governments; income tax dollars inequitably distributed back to local governments; far too many local governments — more than 10,500 in New York — that need to be consolidated or eliminated; fraud and waste; and economic stagnation producing no expansion in the property tax base. You could throw in crippling Medicaid costs and unsustainable pension costs. “It’s the No. 1 issue,” he said. “People have reached their breaking point. But we still have a long way to go in connecting the dots between dysfunction in state government and high property taxes.” Still, breaking point or not, who knows where this goes? A Proposition 13-style temper tantrum? Painful cuts — meaning teachers and police? Throw out the bums — most likely Democrats, who could be fat targets in an antitax backlash? Lots of grumbling but living with an increasingly unaffordable status quo? Gerald Prante, an economist with the Tax Foundation in Washington, said at least people feel they get something tangible from their local taxes and can tolerate them if they believe they’re getting what they paid for. “If I told you I spent $40,000 on a car, it doesn’t tell you much unless you know what kind of car,” he said. “If it’s a Lamborghini, it was probably a good deal. If it was a Saturn, it’s not such a good deal.” Thus, for all the angst, the fact that most local school budgets still routinely pass indicates we might be more likely to grumble than to cut close to home. The problem is that many suburbanites who bought the luxury car a few years back now can barely afford the Saturn. The New Jersey race will provide some signals. Whether Republicans regain control of the Nassau County Legislature might provide some more. But the status quo can’t last, and if there’s a huge backlash, Democrats have the most to fear politically. “The longer we wait, the harder the reckoning is going to be,” Dr. Nathan said. E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com
