Fixing the Property Tax Problem Post-Sandy

Greetings, Freeport!

I hope we're all enjoying the snowy weather?  I know, it's scary - an actual winter!  But I'm here to talk about something different.  A few days ago I asked, via Facebook, if people would like me to write an article talking about property tax; particularly in Sandy's aftermath.  I've done this sort of thing before, and I am going to refer back to it, so keep this link handy.  However, I'll gladly excerpt the most impact-laden statement I made:

"In 2008, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg testified that New York State takes $11 BILLION more in taxes from NYC than the city gets back. So NYC is basically losing eleven billion dollars to the state, as if it were a gift. That money is spent in upstate NY on some very useful - and some very not-useful - projects."

Why am I referring to NYC?  Because the same phenomenon that Mr.  Bloomberg refers to - tax disparity - threatens once again to crush Freeport.

Yes, this is a recycled image.  By me, property of Liberty Free Media.

Property Taxes:  Local And State

Let's get this out of the way:  One, I'm not a tax lawyer, and I can be wrong on -any- part of this; I'm just trying to give an overview of how I've always understood taxes to work.  Two, we pay school and Village taxes based generally on the assessed value of our property.  What's an assessment?  Generally speaking, someone from the government comes, takes a look at your property (including factors like surrounding properties' condition, school effectiveness, whatever a potential home-buyer would look at) and assigns your property a value.

So, for the sake of argument, let's say that they decide your property is worth $200,000.  Also, if you live in an apartment, you may not pay these taxes - your landlord does, and he passes the cost on to you, naturally!

Now, based on your assessed value, you are taxed at whatever rate you're taxed at.  5%, 7%, whatever taxes happen to be.  When you hear about tax increases, you are not typically seeing your taxes raise by whatever percentage of your assessed valuation it is.  A 10% tax increase to 10% does not mean you now pay 20%; it means taxes go up by 10% of 10, or a total of 1% assessed valuation; to a new high of 11%.  We typically hear about this second number, the percentage increase from the previous year, and it can sound deceptively high.  So 10% of $200,000 is $20,000/year in taxes; if that sounds ridiculously high, that's because it is.  I just used 10% for ease-of-math.

I also invite actual tax experts to post in the comments section, or on our facebook page (either-or) about how this stuff actually works.  Correct me if I'm wrong, if you're a professional in this area.

Now, this was just a quick over-view.  I wanna get into the post-Sandy details, because that's where our problem lies.  Remember what Mr.  Bloomberg said.


Post-Sandy Tax Rise in Freeport

Okay.  We just had a massive hurricane come and rip our town apart.  Consequently, our Village has spent an extraordinary amount of money on recovery, and it's going to need more.  Typically, when governments need money, they...What, folks?  Raise taxes?  Yes!  It pays for things like, I dunno, "Rebuilding the fucking town!"  If you're curious, I remember Mr.  Bloomberg saying something very similar, only with less emphasis.

HOWEVER!!!

Where is this money supposed to come from?  In case you've been asleep, or you're a tax official, a good chunk of Freeport just slipped under the ocean.  This is both literal and metaphoric; everything south of Atlantic Avenue was pretty much under-water during Sandy, right?  Sandy is not unique.  True, it's the worst we've had in more than fifty years, but let's be realistic - Hurricane Irene, last year, could have been Sandy.  We could have had two Sandys in two years.

Let's pause a moment to reflect on "assessed valuation."

Your assessment is based on what your property can sell for on the open market, correct?  Here's a simple fucking question from someone whose flooded basement is on the internet:  Who, in their right mind, is going to buy a home south of Atlantic Avenue in Freeport when next year could easily bring another massive flood, wiping out everything you own!?  In fact, let's do a quick tally; Within easy viewing distance of my home, three houses were condemned after Sandy.  Property values?  You must be joking.  Overnight, Sandy destroyed whatever property values my home and others might have had.  There is no way that the previous dollar values are accurate, and naturally there are people fighting to have their assessed valuations reduced.  Why?

Because the property isn't worth anything, really, if it can be washed away overnight.


Where Can The Money Come From?


Now, let's move on to the next point.  Andrew Hardwick, our nigh-infamous mayor, spoke to the New York Times.  Here's what he said:

"My thing is to encourage property owners to not seek reassessments because you’re going to pay on one end or the other.  If too many people seek reassessment and are successful with it, that means, how do you pay the bills on the other end? You raise the taxes again? It doesn’t make sense."

Let's get this out of the way:  Technically speaking, without paying attention to anything but the numbers, he's correct.  Factually speaking, he is correct.  Yes, if people get re-assessed and the Village needs money, it will simply raise taxes on everyone to make up the difference.  So that's it, we're fucked, we're debt slaves in Freeport, living in houses that aren't worth a tenth of what the government thinks they are; but we can't re-assess because otherwise we'll just get taxed more, and nobody'll even buy our house if we want to move out!  And that's it, right?

Why have I been talking about Michael Bloomberg so much?

Long Island and NYC have just been decimated, right?  Well, historically, we have given New York State's government far more in tax revenue than we have received.  Mr.  Bloomberg himself said that in one year, the difference for NYC alone was $11 billion.  What if, instead, NYC got to keep that?  Can you imagine if, instead of bleeding $11 billion a year, NYC just broke even?  Can you imagine $11 billion in tax revenue retained by New York City?  Can you, then, extrapolate how much we would save if we were entitled to a similar scheme?

Never mind the state actually giving us a net surplus - just imagine if we kept our money!  Money that, in the article wayyy above, I'd heard has gone as far as fourteen cents to the dollar?  Meaning, by the way, that for every $1 in state taxes we paid, we got back $.14?  Meaning we'd have over five times the money we usually do from NYS?

Are you picturing it?  Yes?  Good, because I'm about to blow your mind:


The Federal Government.

That's the answer, Mr.  Hardwick.  Our state can help us recover, but how do we prevent this from happening again?  Easy!  We get the Feds involved.  The scary part is that they've already been involved, a little.  The scarier part is dumbasses like Republican Stephen Palazzo, a Mississippi congressman who begged for Hurricane Katrina relief, refused to vote for us to get aid because of the federal debt being too high.  Mr.  Palazzo has since been roundly slapped up by the media, has toured our region, and has come to his damned senses, agreeing to vote for us to get some help.

I could get into an argument about the federal debt, but that's not why I'm here.  Suffice to say that its a problem, but not one solved by leaving us screwed.

Instead, the Feds need to pitch in and do some basic disaster mitigation.  In fact, the next time a Freeport mayor feels like globe-trotting, said mayor should visit The Netherlands and study their Delta Works project.  Isn't it amazing how modern technology can allow a nation, virtually below sea level, to protect itself from floods?  Why don't we have that?!  Because it would cost money?!  This is what taxes are for.  Not wars in Libya/Mali/Wherever, not crusades for or against gay marriage, not even health care plans!  Who cares about health care if your town is under water?!

I digress.  The point of this article isn't to talk about ways to protect our Village, Long Island, NYC, and our entire region in general from another major flood.  The sad truth is that, if global sea levels continue to rise, our town might be doomed fifty years from now no matter what we do.  That's too large an argument for me to try to make, here.

The point is that we shouldn't be fighting over raising taxes, versus getting re-assessments on property, versus having to lose services.  For far too long, our area has given New York State a glut of money to invest in boondocks and border-regions alike.  And that's what taxes are for, folks - investments in public works!  But, now, we're the ones in need.  We're the ones who need lower taxes and more services - and we need it badly.  And as much as I love my "We Survived Sandy" magnet, that's chump change compared to the long-term help we need.

We need to organize, to petition our state and federal government, and demand an immediate resolution of our problems.  I feel so strongly about this that I would rather see Long Island and/or NYC as its own state then continue to feed the rest of New York State if we don't get aid, now, and I love New York.  I really do!  But it's time for them to fulfill their end of this taxation bargain, and if they don't then they need to know they will have to deal with We, The People.