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Senator Liz Krueger Releases Property Tax Report

Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) released today a comprehensive report by the Senate Select Committee on Budget and Tax Reform on New York State’s property tax exemption system and its impacts on taxpayers.  

The report, which is based on oral and written statements from the Select Committee's October 13 roundtable in Albany, explores why the Legislature has struggled with controlling the growth of these exemptions over the past three decades. Since 1992, the Executive and Legislature have launched at least three major property tax exemption reform efforts and several smaller campaigns. In the end dozens of recommendations have been forwarded, but only a handful have been enacted.

The Staff Report to the New York State Senate Select Committee on Budget and Tax Reform on Evaluating the Needs for and Costs of New York State Property Tax Exemptions features the following:

• A list of significant property tax exemption measures the Legislature has approved over the past decade;
• An in-depth review of property tax exemption growth over the past decade;
• An analysis of the challenges that vague language in statute and the New York State Constitution pose for curtailing property tax exemption growth;
• An index of major recommendations and legislative proposals raised by the Executive and Legislature since 1992.

“The role of property tax exemptions in New York State’s property tax crisis have largely been overshadowed by soaring school aid and Medicaid costs. When used properly, exemptions can foster economic development, volunteerism and many other worthwhile causes. But all too often in New York these relief measures further stress non-exempt New Yorkers’ tax burden,” said Senator Krueger, who chairs the Select Committee.