Ed Mangano, the Republican candidate for Nassau County Executive, who is also running on the "Tax Revolt" party line hates taxes so much, he doesn't think he has to pay them- $900,000 worth of them, in fact:
The Republican candidate for Nassau's county executive, who is also running on a Tax Revolt Party line, had more than $900,000 in federal and state tax liens against his family business in Bethpage in recent years.
Edward Mangano, a member of the County Legislature from Bethpage since 1995, said Wednesday he no longer has an interest in the company, New Media Printing, although federal tax liens filed as recently as this year were addressed to him.
(snip)
Either he's lying on his financial disclosure forms when he says that he owns something that he doesn't, or he's lying now," [Democratic Chairman Jay] Jacobs said. "And who lists themselves on a disclosure form owning something when they don't?"
Aside from the irony that his company is called "New Media Printing," this is yet another example of the culture of corruption that pervades the Nassau Republican Party and its standard-bearer, Ed Mangano. I'm confident Nassau voters are smart enough to remember the cronyism, corruption, and patronage under Republican rule that nearly drove Nassau to bankruptcy until Suozzi saved it starting in 2002.
And on that note, the Nassau Dems just came out with 2 web ads reminging everybody about the differences between Republican rhetoric on property taxes and, ya know, the truth:
Suozzi is right to remind everyone how corrupt Nassau Republicans continue to be, and I don't think Nassau voters' memories are short enough to forget that or the excellent job Suozzi has done in the past 8 years.
We all knew Tom Suozzi was running for re-election as Nassau County Executive, but he is having his formal announcement celebration at the EAB/RXR plaza tonight at 6:30:
Suozzi has been a transformational figure on Long Island over the past 8 years, being a major cause for the Democratic-enrollment edge achieved in Nassau County last year, which is a testament to the way he led Nassau out of its own local disaster that decades of Republican rule left it with in 2001. (Talk about leading a national trend.)
So if you can make it to the announcement tonight, I'm sure it will be worth your while.
Five months ago, Governor David Paterson and the four leaders from the New York State Legislature held a press conference I described at the time as a "dysfunctional press conference for a dysfunctional legislature." It was entertaining to watch because of the bickering, but the feeling of nothing getting done was there and it wasn't a good feeling. This state has a lot of issues, especially when it comes to the budget and addressing property taxes. This is a time when bipartisanship should be on display in Albany.
The same can be said for today, as Robinia documented earlier. The constant all fight and no action behavior in Albany is getting us nowhere.
The budget crisis we have in New York is a serious problem. We also have a serious issue with property taxes that has led to more divisiveness and less action. So what do we need to do? What do we do to address these issues? Here are some ideas based on "To Cut, To Cap or To Tax?"
WHAT TO CUT: TAXES. Cutting spending like Governor Paterson wants to cut spending won't solve any problems. In fact, it will just create more problems for us that we would have to address sooner rather than later. But cutting taxes would help, especially if those tax cuts target the middle-class like they should. That will help boost New York's economy. A tax cap is not an answer. A tax cap looks like a great solution, but it really won't do anything except tell municipalities how far they can raise taxes. That's all the tax cap will do. So cutting property taxes is a must. Implementing a circuit breaker in New York will help, but we also need to look at a complete makeover of how we tax our citizens here in New York.
WHAT TO CAP: SPENDING. Cutting spending will only create more problems. So why not meet at the middle? Instead of annual hikes in spending or drastic cuts, how about a spending cap? This is where capping can make a difference. With the renovated tax system we hope to create, we need to implement a much better system for spending New York's taxpayer dollars. Instead of looking to us - the taxpayer - for money, the government should treat their finances like any family. They need to think long and hard about how much they are bringing in and, in turn, how much they should be spending.
WHO TO TAX: MILLIONAIRES. The facts about a millionaires tax are known. A millionaires tax can work and will produce precious revenues here in New York. In this economic climate, millionaires are the ones that can afford it. A millionaires tax has been tried in other states with great success. In other states, more jobs have been created and the number of wealthy people has actually increased. Not only that, but more revenues have been created. New York needs more revenue, but not at the expense of middle-class taxpayers who need a reprieve from high taxation.
This is what the New York State Legislature and Governor Paterson should be addressing. Taxes in New York are out of control and lead to young people and hardworking New Yorkers leaving the state in favor of a better economic environment. Drastic spending cuts will create more problems but if we continue to raise spending levels every year, it will also create problems for us. That is where a spending cap can be beneficial. And making millionaires pay their fair share only makes sense.
Maybe January will be a different story. These "leaders meetings" are relatively useless, but it also showed why New Yorkers voted for a Democratic state senate earlier this month. It was and is time for change. Let's hope they mean it come January.
As Caesar Trunzo continues to hide, Brian X. Foley is out engaging voters and talking issues. Today he was talking about his plans for property tax relief in Ronkonkoma.
Ronkonkoma, NY - State Senate candidate Brian X. Foley stood with supporters on the lawn of a middle-class family in Ronkonkoma, New York today, with two checks symbolizing the thousands of dollars working families in Islip and Brookhaven would be saving with a property tax cap and circuit breaker.
"Brookhaven and Islip residents are struggling with property taxes that are crippling their finances. Working families can't pay their medical bills, are getting crushed by high gas costs, and in too many cases, can't afford to send their children to college. It's time state government started working for the people. Let's start saving voters big bucks today," stated Brian X. Foley. "We need real relief, right now."
Supervisor Foley supports a plan, called a circuit breaker, which provides immediate tax relief and puts money into the pockets of working families making under $250,000/year, with a tax refund of 70% of what they pay over a percentage of their income.
"My opponent Caesar Trunzo has had 36 years to help lower property taxes and he's simply been unable to get the job done - instead, he's made the problem worse by raising our property taxes with unfunded mandates. Now that he is facing a tough race, he thinks that limiting the growth of our taxes to 4% without any actual relief is enough. It's not. My plan offers real relief, right now: big savings for seniors and working families," stated Foley.
Regina Corby Graham, a Mastic resident whose property taxes have doubled in the past decade, has a household income of $44,200/year and pays $6,400 annually in property taxes. Under the circuit breaker, she would receive a rebate of $2,624. "Since Caesar Trunzo came into office, property taxes have increased 384%," Corby Graham says. "It's outrageous that property taxes have risen so much. We need someone in Albany who will represent the interests of working people, and retirees like myself."
Young families, seniors, and those living on a fixed income, will also benefit from the circuit breaker plan. A senior living on a $70,000 fixed income with a total property tax bill of $8,000 would be entitled to a $2,660 rebate. This legislation does not affect the Enhanced Senior STAR program, nor the basic STAR exemption.
"Caesar Trunzo's plan is classic Albany double-speak," explained Beccah Watson, a spokesperson for the Foley for Senate campaign. "Instead of cutting property taxes and providing real relief, it raises taxes by 4% per year, with no actual money going back to overburdened taxpayers."
Brian Foley supports the "Tax Relief Triple Play" (S.8733), proposed by Senators Jeff Klein and Craig Johnson. The legislation is a three-pronged reform of New York's broken property tax system that controls spending with a sensible cap on property taxes, eases unfunded mandates on local schools and governments, and provides real relief to taxpayers through a circuit breaker tax rebate that is tied to income.
Those following the latest in the property tax saga are familiar with the war of words that erupted today between WPF Chair Dan Cantor, David Paterson, and Tom Suozzi. Adding to the dispute, NYSUT decided to deny their endorsement to any Senator who voted for the property tax cap.
Basically, both sides have good intentions. Paterson and Suozzi know that property taxes in NY are through the roof and are stifling growth and are making in unaffordable for many people to continue to keep living in their homes. WPF and NYSUT rightly argue that schools need more resources and teachers are underpaid when you look at their salaries in the context of the cost of living downstate. Unfortunately, both sides are now digging in their heels and the discourse is taking a nose dive.
In a nutshell, the property tax cap is a very blunt instrument. And I can see why people would be supporting desperate measures in a desperate time. However, the real debate has just become over the pros and cons using a very blunt instrument instead of a discussion of why property taxes are so high outside of NYC in the first place. If the state doesn't address these issues, we are all forced into this paradigm of the false choice between high property taxes vs. education cuts.
There are really two main reasons for high property taxes, and this whole discussion has almost completely ignored both of them:
1) Under state law, the only kind of taxes that municipalities are allowed to raise without the legislature's approval are property taxes. With a framework like this, of course property taxes are through the roof.
Municipalities have to go hat-in-hand to the legislature if they want to raise any other type of tax, like sales or income taxes. To his credit, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been pushing for raising state income taxes on the highest earners. However, a much more beneficial effect would be obtained just by giving municipalites this power. The only two municipalities in the state with progressive income taxes are NYC and Yonkers- I'm not sure about Yonkers, but I know NYC has significantly lower property tax rates than the rest of the state in part because NYC collects a progressive income tax on its residents. And NYC still has to get the legislature's approval for any adjustments it wants to make to this.
Allowing other municipalities to at least have the option of levying progressive income taxes in lean times would go a long way towards taking the tax burden off of property taxpayers, which is a regressive burden in many ways.
2) The truly redicioulous inefficiency and redundancy that is caused by dividing up municipal services into towns, villages, fire districts, sewer districts, library districts, water districts, ect.. and allowing all of these districts to levy property taxes in the residents in their jurisdiction is essentially just flushing property tax money down the toilet.
The New York State Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competiveness made an attempt to adress these issues, though in my opinion, it didn't go far enough. Suozzi's property tax commission adopted the NYCLGEC's recommendations in full, but they have essentially been forgotten in this debate since then.
A good way to put this in perspective is to look at it in reverse. I know I might be being a little NYC-centric, but bear with me:
Imagine if tomorrow, the Mayor, City Council, and State Legislature decided to take NYC's Department of Sanitation and divide it into several different sewer districts, each with their own executives and boards making six-figure salaries and maintaining their own parts of sewer infrastructure with little or no coordination with eachother. And then imagine if the same powers decided to break up the 5 boroughs into towns and make each one have their own independent municial govenments. And furthermore, allowed seperate villages to form within the towns and maintain their own seperate snowplowing fleets, police forces, and everything else. Now imagine doing the same process with libraries, fire departments, and all the rest. That would be an absolutely terrible idea. The different property taxes levied on the residents of the former NYC would be through the roof- just like they are everywhere else in NY.
If doing that to NYC is clearly such a terrible idea, then getting rid of all these disparate municipal entities outside of NYC and putting them under wider local government economies of scale, like counties, is clearly a good idea. And this is the type of idea that this debate should be centered around.
The Working Families Party unveiled a new website featuring a property tax cut calculator and explaining what the WFP-supported property tax cut "circuit breaker" would look like.
The WFP also issued a press release regarding this website and an explanation of their plan.
The Working Families Party announced today the launch of its online tax cut calculator ( www.taxcutnow.org ), demonstrating the potential tax savings to millions of New York homeowners through a "circuit breaker."
The Working Families Party plan would set an income-based limit on each family's property tax bill, meaning relief would go proportionally to those who need it most.
"A unworkable, one size fits all cap would simply limit the amount that your property taxes could go up," said Dan Cantor, Working Families Party Executive Director. "The Working Families Party plan for tax relief would give millions of homeowners an immediate tax cut the fair way, based on your family's ability to pay."
"Now, working families across New York can log on and see what real property tax relief would mean for them."
The calculator includes a petition calling for property tax relief through the circuit breaker model. Thousands of New Yorkers have already signed WFP petitions calling for property tax relief through a circuit breaker.
The Working Families Party is planning a massive campaign to advertise the calculator, including web ads, emails to supporters, and in conversations with homeowners while knocking on tens of thousands of doors in targeted State Senate districts this summer and fall.
The WFP's plan, according to its website, would be paid for by repealing some of the tax cuts on the wealthy. As this chart provided by the WFP shows, taxes on the wealthy would impact very few people in the large scheme of things, yet would be a great source of revenue.
The WFP plan is a strong one. This is exactly what I want to see. We need to address the property tax issues here in New York. Our Legislature failed to do that in the last six months. We need to act fast on property taxes. This is an important issue that we can't wait for the "three men in a room" to decide on how they want to address it. We need action and we need it now.
Greg Julian, who only recently announced his candidacy for the New York State Senate in District 38 fired a loud opening salvo today in his campaign against incumbent Senator Thomas P. Morahan. Julian has backed Morahan into a corner by challenging the Republican incumbent to either side with strapped taxpayers or to continue to support State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's blockage of tax-relief measures.
Just today, Julian sent the letter (below) directly to Morahan via e-mail.
Dear Tom,
Once again, measures that are in the best interests of the people of the State of New York and the NY State Senate District that you and I will be competing for, are being prevented from passage, solely due to Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's refusal to permit them to come to the floor for a vote.
I know that as a long time Republican, it is difficult for you to break with your leader, Mr. Bruno. This fact notwithstanding, I urge you to join me in publicly calling upon Mr. Bruno to permit the Governor's proposal for a Real Property Tax Cap to come to the floor of the NYS Senate for a vote, tomorrow. The people are suffering under the present tax system that you and your colleagues have permitted to exist for too long. It is time for change.
Sincerely,
Greg Julian
Good work, Greg. Does anyone want to make odds on the likelihood of a response from Morahan?
Here are two basic principles that this proposal recommends.
Cap property taxes the smart way: using a "circuit breaker" to actually cut property taxes for working families, in a way that's fair to all taxpayers.
Pay for it the right way: with a modest, partial repeal of income tax cuts for the wealthy. Doing so lets New York cap property taxes for the middle class and seniors without threatening critical public investments.
In a joint press release, the WFP and NYFF promoted their plan as one that would truly help working families and the middle class.
A bipartisan group of more than forty New York State legislators joined leaders of the Working Families Party and New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness today to announce a plan that would cap the amount of local property taxes paid by middle class families and seniors across New York.
"Our plan caps property taxes the smart way - not by capping the amount property taxes can increase - but by actually giving a substantial property tax cut to working families who need it," said Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the Working Families Party.
Dubbed the "Real Property Tax Cap", the plan would reduce the property tax burden of middle class homeowners and seniors by capping the percentage of household income that the homeowner would pay in property taxes. For example, in one version of the plan, a family with a combined income of $80,000 per year would pay no more than 6% of their income in property taxes ($4800). Any property taxes paid above that amount would be either fully or partially rebated back to the homeowner. The net effect of the rebate would be a massive multi-billion dollar property tax cut for working families and seniors.
Known in budget parlance as a "circuit breaker", the plan aims to target property tax relief to middle class families and seniors. Renters would also get a rebate on a similar model. The plan would be financed by a partial repeal of income tax cuts enacted in the 1990's for the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.
At first glance, I really like what was proposed here. I'm eager to see what the Suozzi Commission proposes this week when they release their report. Property taxes are an issue here in New York, especially in upstate New York. Yes, downstate pays more in taxes, but upstate's taxes tend to be a higher percentage of property values than downstate's. As a whole, our state is taxed heavily and we need solutions, especially when it comes to property tax reform.
Funny how the school budget details reach your mailbox a couple of days before the vote on said budget. I got mine in Saturday's mail and the vote is on Tuesday. Hardly enough time to write an op-ed to the local paper critiquing the "hard work" our local school board did to hold tax increases to around 3.5%, a number that will undoubtedly balloon to around 8% after the equalization rates are recomputed.
Here in Clinton, which is probably the most tony school district in central New York, there is a separate ballot item for new school buses. Clinton wants to buy a total of four to replace (cue the violins) the ones in their fleet that have more than 100,000 miles on them, or are more than ten years old. I have a couple of questions about this, to which there is insufficient time for answers, so I'm just going to vote NO on the damned buses until I get them.
Coming days before the Suozzi Commission unveils its own property tax proposal - expected to include a cap on the rate of growth of local property taxes - the groups will propose an alternative plan that would cut property taxes for the middle class and seniors. The plan would be financed by a partial repeal of the Pataki income tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.
The proposal, known as an enhanced "circuit breaker" will reduce the property tax burden for working families and seniors without undermining vital public services; the plan would also apply to renters - in effect providing a tax credit for tenants throughout the state.
The press conference is at noon today in the LCA Room. Should be an interesting and strong proposal.
Last week, a special property tax commission set up by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and supported by his successor, Gov. David A. Paterson, wrapped up its sixth and final hearing. The commission is due to issue a report by May 22 that will include imposing a ceiling on annual property tax increases by school districts as its signature proposal, though the form of any limit remains to be determined.
New York State United Teachers, the powerful union that holds considerable clout in Albany, cannot abide a cap or several other steps the commission is considering.
"The process is flawed because it starts with the assumption that a property tax cap is something that we need," said Richard C. Iannuzzi, the union's president, above. "When you start with the conclusion that it has to be a cap, you limit the ability to look at things.
"That destroyed the public school system in California, and we're not going to let that happen in New York."
This could pose some problems if this tax cap were to be implemented or attempted to be implemented. On May 22, the full report will be released. Then we will see what options we have and what we can do to reduce the property tax burden in our state.
"Brookhaven and Islip residents are struggling with property taxes that are crippling their finances. Working families can't pay their medical bills, are getting crushed by high gas costs, and in too many cases, can't afford to send their children to college. It's time state government started working for the people. Let's start saving voters big bucks today," stated Brian X. Foley. "We need real relief, right now."
