County ranks third on national tax list

Sometimes it”™s not a good thing to be ranked in a top-10 list.

The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C-based nonprofit tax research organization, released a report this month on property tax burdens for each U.S. county with a population above 65,000. The report was based on 2006 figures from the U.S. census bureau”™s recently released American Community Survey.

Three New York counties, Westchester, Rockland and Nassau, were among the top 10 counties in property taxes paid in the U.S. Westchester was third, with an average of $7,626. Rockland finished seventh at $7,041. Nassau County was second on the list, finishing behind Hunterdon County, N.J.

Counties in New York and New Jersey comprised the entire top 10.

“The Northeast, mainly New Jersey and New York, remains the area with the highest property taxes on homeowners,” reads a portion of the report. “These states also have high per-capita income, and the highest property tax bills, in terms of dollar amounts, are usually found in the areas with the highest incomes. As for the percentage-of-home-value measure, counties in New Jersey and New York still dominate as they tend to impose the highest property tax rates on homeowners, as well.”

New York”™s statewide median property tax of $3,301 was the fourth highest of 50. However, the Empire Center, an Albany-based fiscal policy center, says this is likely because property taxes on single-family homes are exceptionally low in New York City, which imposes the nation’s heaviest property taxes on apartment buildings and commercial properties.

William Mooney Jr., president of the Westchester County Association, said taxes are one of the chief concerns he has heard while traveling the state and speaking to business groups and residents.

“I do know as a state we are always finding new things to tax people on,” he said.

Mooney said one of the main reasons is the exorbitant number of taxing entities in the state.

“We have 4,200 local governments, 4,000 school districts, and 6,900 special-taxing districts,” he said. “If that were the private sector, business would never tolerate all the layers of government we have.”

Attempting to tackle this problem, Gov. Eliot Spitzer in April created the Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness to look at consolidating services and regional collaboration statewide in order to reduce the number of taxing entities.

The commission was charged with traveling the state identifying barriers to more efficient government through merger, consolidation and/or regionalization of services, and partnerships that enable localities to provide services more efficiently. It is expected to issue a report on its findings April 15.

While Mooney praised the idea, he noted that, “every governor has started this process, and nothing has come out of it, hopefully this one will.”

In the short run, Mooney said he is “not too optimistic” for tax relief.

 

“Next year is going to be a complicated year,” he said. “New York state is going to have a shortfall, estimated in the vicinity of several billion dollars. The way the economy is going right now, it doesn”™t look like there will be any relief.”

Mooney said Westchester County “does a good job overall” in trying to keep taxes down, but “there”™s always room for improvement.”

Al Samuels, president of the Rockland Business Association, said the high cost of living in the state, and particularly the New York metro area, will eventually become a drain on the area”™s work force.

“For Rockland to continue to thrive as an economic venue, we need the most important component of business, the work force, and we need the housing for that work force,” Samuels said.

He said in addition to that, high energy costs in New York are also a drain on economic development.

Samuels did praise the Empire Zone program, saying it has been essential to bringing industry into the state.

The main issues driving property taxes up in the state are the high number of taxing entities, Medicaid costs, and collective bargaining laws that favor unions, said David Shaffer, president of the Public Policy Institute, the research arm of The Business Council of New York State.

“One thing to be looked at are the number of local governments, they tend to employ a larger percentage of the state”™s work force than in competing states,” he said. “There”™s about 75,000 (government  employees) statewide. A lot of that is driven by the number of governments there are.”

Shaffer said the council would be watching the efficiency commission”™s progress on the subject “with great interest.”

With many of these government employees nearing retirement, he said the state has a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to reduce the number of jobs without considering layoffs.

Shaffer said the biggest thing driving Medicaid costs is fraud.

He said through loopholes in the plan people who have the financial means to pay for health care use the program, which was not intended for them.

“A program designed for the poor should be used by the poor,” he said.

For the complete Tax Foundation report, visit www.taxfoundation.org.

 

 

Top 10 Counties in median real estate taxes for 2006

 

 

Source: 2006 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey