By any standards the new NY state budget is at best a poor joke for property owners. In fact, it is much more like rubbing a mixture of salt, lemon juice and chili powder in fresh wounds.
If you’ve skated by, happily and unquestionably paying your overblown and flawed property taxes every year without challenging them, this is the year that you need to put your foot down and appeal.
Property Tax Relief Or Yet Another Con?
NY lawmakers have now agreed on a new state budget with $4B in tax hikes. This represents around a 10% increase in a variety of state personal and corporate income taxes.
It remains unclear how this budget really helps property owners in NY. In fact, it only seems to penalize and prey on the state’s most loyal and hardest working residents. The homeowners who have decided to stay and keep trying to keep the state strong, instead of fleeing like so many others.
Their reward? According to the governor’s own website, about the only help for this group is a potential $350 per year property tax credit, for some people, under certain circumstances which aren’t yet totally clear.
Sounds great, right?
So, you may have received a $1,200 stimulus check from the government, but now a 10% increase in your taxes each and every year. Who did that help most?
Now you are being offered the hope of a $350 tax credit. Only around half of all property tax bills being sent out each year are admittedly flawed and overblown. According to Mansion Global, the average property tax bill in Suffolk County, Long Island is $9,472. In Nassau County the median is $14,872. So, chances are you may be getting overcharged many hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. But, you might have the chance to get a $350 break on that. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that is a pretty bad deal. Add on top of that many Nassau residents are expecting 50% higher bills this year after recent countywide tax reassessments.
This is all while we are experiencing an extreme rise in mortgage delinquencies. There is a ton of help for renters, but what about property owners and landlords? Consider that we are facing new highs of FHA mortgages in foreclosure, with a new across the board average of 17.5%, and over 20% in some major metros. That is over 1 in 5 homeowners with these most popular loans about to lose their homes. Yet, they not only cannot force non-paying occupants to pay or leave, they are now paying higher taxes themselves, and are paying more taxes to put money in these same renters pockets.
Taxes, Taxes, Taxes
While individually some of these tax increases may seem survivable and palatable, you’ve got to add up all of the layers. We are facing an unprecedented amount of new taxes and tax hikes from Federals and state income taxes to capital gains taxes, estate taxes, property taxes and sales taxes.
Add them up. It is going to put a big hole in your finances.
What can you do about it? Challenge your property tax bill. That alone could save you hundreds or even thousands each year. If not for the money, do it for the principle, because it is never going to end.