Exempting our way to bankruptcy?
Last year Ontario County voted to reject property tax exemptions for veterans. In that post I argued that it was time to live up to our values and approve the veteran exemptions. If it a good enough for business is certainly is good enough for Veterans. Turns out they granted the exemption last week.
The D&C recently had a terrific article about tax exemptions in the greater Rochester Area. Per the graphic - ~20% of the property is exempt for one reason or the other
~20% of property is exempt for one reason or another.
New York has authorized more than 275 exemptions that took $797 billion of property off the tax rolls this year in counties, school districts, towns, cities and villages across the state — almost twice the amount taken off the tax rolls in 2000.
As is the case with the Cold War exemption, local governments sometimes have the option of rejecting these exemptions.
Doubled since 2000? WOW, 800 billion dollars in property taxes come off the books. Oh, local governments ’sometimes’ have the option of rejecting these breaks? Well, if the local government initiates the break sure, if an IDA initiates the break - like, say the Wellesley Inn - not a chance.
But wait there is more -
Given the high cost of doing business in the state, governments turn to tax exemptions to attract businesses. Such an approach has a cost to those who don’t get the exemptions. “Everyone is subsidizing a small group of people and companies receiving the benefit,” Zettek said. Despite the widespread use of exemptions in New York, there is no overall policy for creating and monitoring tax breaks.
So, no overall policy. The high cost of doing business in the state what exactly does this mean? High property taxes? There’s an exemption for that apparently. One that goes to those who apply and add to everyone’s share.
But there are tax exemptions for Business - Excellus pays no property tax, Homes with fallout shelters in Rochester and my personal favorite - homes on East Avenue that qualify for an Empire Zone.
The Excellus BlueCross BlueShield building on Court Street is assessed at $26.9 million but doesn’t pay property taxes because it is a health service corporation under state insurance law.
…
Without an exemption, Excellus would have to pay $1.4 million in city and county taxes, according to the city’s assessor’s office.
On East Avenue, a $571,900 condominium in the Sagamore on East complex is subject to virtually no city or county taxes because this upscale complex is in an Empire Zone, qualifying it for tax breaks over an 11-year span to attract downtown development.
Christa Companies built the seven-story complex on a former parking lot, which had been assessed at about $30,000, and began selling the 23 condos and five commercial units in 2005. Almost all the space in this seven-story building has now been sold and the property is assessed at $15.6 million.
Under Empire Zone rules, the owners of these units pay property taxes for the first seven years as if their property were still assessed as a parking lot. A higher tax is then phased in so that by the 11th year, the property is taxed at its true value.
Now once you are exempt - you don’t have to pay things like increased property taxes. So, When Maggie Brooks proclaims that she is keeping the tax rate stable but increasing the tax levy (thereby raising property taxes on those not fortunate enough to be exempt) remember - you are subsiding - lots of IDA projects like
Hotels that we can’t fill
Corporate offices of Nothnagle Reality
All the more reason COMIDA projects should be scrutinized like say Medley Center. Kinda difficult to do if you have COMIDA members says things like this
“We normally don’t look at what a developer has done in a different city,” said COMIDA board member Robert Hurlbut, Jr. “Why would we?”
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I don’t know why it surprises me anymore. Most Republican and many Democratic lawmakers demonstrate a level of contempt against the public that is staggering. Tax dollars, contracts and jobs go to friends of officials and the public is still expected to trust them! Here in Greece they duped folks into believing they were trustworthy because they piously start every town meeting with a Christian prayer! The school district is just as bad. A good teacher lost a job and the friend of an administrator was hired. That friend was later found guilty of a sex crime with a student. These are not isolated, infrequent happenings. They occur regularly and officials who caused the problem brush it off saying, “Yes, it happened, but look how we responded when we found out.” $10,000 seems to be the magic number that makes bad things go away in Greece. The county and other towns are just as bad! We have seen over and over that power breeds contempt and corruption, yet the voters keep putting the same jerks in office. Main stream media is a co-conspirator that reports b.s. human interest stories while serious crimes occur on the streets and in town halls. Things have to change because we are past the tipping point. We can’t afford any more mistakes. Our taxes are too high, the infrastructure is crumbling, jobs are too hard to find, health care, housing and food are too expensive. We are starting to look like a third world country that needs aid. It has to stop.