Turns out, New York State’s STAR program failed in it’s primary goal – to reduce the property tax burden. It actually had the opposite of it’s intended effect – it accelerated spending by local school districts, which in turn raises the homeowner’s taxes.
I really don’t understand how politicians think. If a whole bunch of politicians took this quiz:
Question: I can lower property taxes by
A) Reducing the tax rate
B) Cutting government spending
C) Increasing taxes then implement a program that selectively gives some money back to certain people and gives the rest to a different money grabbing institution with it’s own power to raise taxes
only the politicians pick C.
Color me cynical, but I always thought the STAR Program was just a backhanded way of increasing taxes on investment property in NYS (ie. only owner-occupied, principal residences qualify). The fact that it was rolled out by Gov. Pataki in an election year – and in that first year, only available to Senior Citizen (guess which demographic votes in the highest percentages)- didn’t help to curb my cynicism about it.
The idea that you get an exemption “because your special”, doesn’t fly if everybody is “special” (except property investors).