Guess the gov or his staff have been reading these boards.
Should I take a bow now?
Perhaps some new legislation is needed at the state level regarding the STAR exemption. You know how laws often get names (John's law, Mary's law, etc). It can be called "RotterdamNY board's law."
Bet DV's savage girlfriend will be trying to make sure something is included in the legislation so her political cronies downtown Schenectady won't lose out.
Quoted Text
State hunts STAR double dippers Multiple exemptions possible in STAR property tax break plan Times Union Copyright 2013 Times Union. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. By Rick Karlin Updated 8:23 am, Wednesday, February 13, 2013
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants his tax officials to take a "look-back" at the state's STAR school tax break program to weed out double dippers.
The project, proposed in the governor's 2013-2014 budget, would also force New Yorkers to once again sign up for the popular property tax break next year.
"This is new ground," state Tax Commissioner Thomas Mattox said Tuesday following a hearing before legislators in which he laid out the look-back plan.
STAR provides more than $3 billion a year in school tax relief to homeowners across the state by exempting a portion of a dwelling's assessed value. While popular with hard-pressed homeowners, state and local officials have long worried that some abuse the system by claiming multiple exemptions.
The assessment reduction is supposed to apply solely to a primary residence, but there is little way of telling if a person has homes in different locations and is claiming two exemptions. To fix that, Mattox said the agency wants to review a decade's worth of exemptions.
Currently, taxpayers register for STAR one time with their local assessors, but the new protocol would require that they sign up with the state Tax Department. Mattox said they would launch a campaign, using mail and phone calls, to remind people to register.
But lawmakers said they feared thousands of homeowners wouldn't get the message and would be stuck with higher tax bills.
"For people to have to sign up again, it's going to be a very interesting and difficult process," said Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, a member of the chamber's Tax Committee. "We should be catching the people who are doing the wrong thing, but at the same time we could be dismissing people who would be getting benefit."
"That will be burdensome if people do forget," added Albany Democratic Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy.
There are other potential problems with the look-back, said Tom Frey, executive director of the state Assessors Association.
He said assessors generally keep records going back six years, which would make a 10-year review difficult to accurately carry out.
Frey noted the state Tax Department would have to gear up to handle the list of exemption holders. "It becomes the only exemption that all of a sudden the state is in charge of, instead of the assessors," he said.
Additionally, the proposal would make the state, rather than local assessors, the arbiter of whether someone is double dipping and should lose an exemption.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Guess the gov or his staff have been reading these boards.
Should I take a bow now?
Perhaps some new legislation is needed at the state level regarding the STAR exemption. You know how laws often get names (John's law, Mary's law, etc). It can be called "RotterdamNY board's law."
Bet DV's savage girlfriend will be trying to make sure something is included in the legislation so her political cronies downtown Schenectady won't lose out.
This proposal does nothing except give the faceless bureaucrats at the state level the power to decide who and who can't "double dip".
If it can't be managed at the local level, how do we think it can be managed at a state level? Who do the people turn to when the double dipping continues? The feds?
The Star Exemption should be eliminated. Let people pay the outrageous school taxes and see how they react. If they think their public school is worth it, pay the FULL VALUE.
The Star Exemption should be eliminated. Let people pay the outrageous school taxes and see how they react. If they think their public school is worth it, pay the FULL VALUE.
Actually, we do, but it comes out of a different pocket of our pants
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
This is classic governmental incompetence. We have $3 billion in handouts and no way to track for compliance.
Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid - John Wayne
TIP TO NEW VISITORS TO THIS FORUM - To improve your blogging pleasure it is recommended to ignore (Through editing your prefere) the posts of the following bloggers - DemocraticVoiceofReason, Scotsgod08 and Smoking Bananas. They continually go off topic, do not provide facts and make irrational remarks. If you do not believe me, this can be proven by their reputation scores or by a sampling of their posts.
This is a power grab by Cuomo. He only wants extra exemptions to go to those the Governor's Office approves of. Nice going, Morris. Way to ruin it for everybody. People who should get exemptions are going to get screwed out of them because of a thrown- together- in- secret new procedure. Why does anyone need an exemption? I thought that Cuomo's tax cap made everything hunky-dory.
BTW, this board was right about Morris' double exemption. We were told that was wrong by some, but it wasn't wrong. How many other assertions made on this board that have been scoffed at, will turn out to be undeniably true? Didn't someone claim to have called the assessor's office and been told that Morris didn't still have an exemption for the Schenectady property? Wasn't M/C called a liar for saying so?
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