Creative School Tax Ideas

New Ideas Are On The Table To Support North Fork Schools

By T.J. Clemente

In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

With this idea as the canvass, the paintbrush is the new “mansion tax” being proposed by the Suffolk County Homeowners Tax Reform Commission to help reduce the fast growing school taxes happening on the North Fork. The “mansion tax” is a one percent tax on all houses that were sold for over one million dollars. William Lindsay, co-chairman of the commission and presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature is the one that created the tax proposal.

Is this new tax proposal an attempt to protect long time homeowners by taxing new homeowners? That is being taken into consideration. As one resident to the new taxes pointed out, “Someone who bought a home worth 4 million dollars today, but paid $800,000 fifteen years ago, escapes the tax. And now someone who is buying real estate at a premium gets whacked by the new tax proposal.”

A valid point, but it is tough to pass up the revenue this new tax would create. The commission believes the new one percent “mansion tax” would generate up to $36.2 million of school tax relief in Suffolk County.

The very same commission is also proposing an across the board, two dollar a pack, tax on all cigarettes sold in Suffolk County to also help assist the increases in the school taxes.

The commission believes this tax idea would raise $65.2 million in revenues. Cigarette smokers were not thrilled about this proposal.

Perhaps the crown jewel of the new proposals to raise money to combat the rising cost of local school taxes is the creation of video lottery terminals in Suffolk County to be run by the Suffolk County Off Track Betting officials. Once again, the commission makes a projection on revenue that is high. They figure that another $73.9 million dollars could be added.

Others saw flaws in the proposals and did not believe them to be viable replacement funding sources, “for the local funding of our schools.” The commission report concludes that, “Income tax works best on a statewide basis.”

The commission also took aim at the discrepancy centered on the fact that state aid to Long Island school districts lags behind the rest of the state. Other than Long Island, state aid to schools districts averages about 45 percent. On Long Island state aid is about 33 percent. The commission believes the state should increase its aid to the Long Island school districts. “This inequity needs to be corrected,” the report summarized.

Believing that increased taxing is making it difficult for existing residents to continue to live in Suffolk County, the Commission also requests that the county start a STAR program like the one New York State created to assist over burdened taxpayers.

With the large share of the property tax bill in Suffolk County going to pay for the schools, some residents find this to be a problem. The fact is, taxes make it more expensive to live here and so, people are moving. One resident responded to the Commission report that Suffolk now has the distinction of being the county that leads New York State in young people leaving to find places that they can afford.

This problem is not going to go away easily. Quality schools are an important ingredient in maintaining firm and high real estate prices. However, who will be living in the homes and whose children will be attending the schools is the million dollar question.