Fair tax advocate Irv Feiner says we have too much government — and that it costs Nyack property owners $1.9 million a year being an incorporated village. Feiner, who once was the subject of a Supreme Court case on free speech, says NY State politicians are ignorant of the findings of their own Suozzi commission, an appointed panel that studied high property taxes. Among those findings:
- A 4 percent cap on all property taxes
- Mandates paid by the state
- The “circuit-breaker” that would protect low- and middle-income households when property taxes exceed a given percentage of their income
“Gov. David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno agree that property taxes are seriously threatening to drive homeowners out of their houses,” Feiner writes in an opinion piece in the Journal News. “But they [can't] agree to do anything about it.”
Sources: Journal News: July 10, May 23; Wikipedia, Feiner Letter to NY State Budget Committee
dave@NyackNewsAndViews.com says:
There’s no questioning Irv’s passion and knowledge on the subject of taxes. But eliminating Nyack as an governmental entity seems like a hard sell.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to merge the Nyacks (Upper/South + Nyack) into a single village? And secede from Orangetown? Don’t these villages have more in common with each other than the rest of Orangetown?
And, if the math works out, the $1.9 million in predicted savings is a little bit more than the $1.3 million I recall that Nyack collects in parking fees and fines. The savings could be used to reduce parking fees which would 1) make businesses happy, 2) make South/Upper residents happy and 3) make the deal easier to sell.
Just a thought…
July 11th, 2008 at 9:38 am