Things to be Happy about!

[justfacts]

We have a very unique Forum provided to us by

"The ADMINISTRATOR"

I'd like to thank that person and their family for giving us all the service which has, and will, provide the means of Plainedge getting a much better Budget process this year than any year before!

Happy Thanksgiving to the ADMINISTRATOR and their family!

And a very Happy one to all Plainedge residents.

[Go Plainedge!]

I think this forum is great and can be better. I only wish more people would get involved. I think we made some positive strides and got past all of the childish bickering.

If any of the new members want to introduce yourself, please feel free to do so.

[justfacts]

STAR Program Changes Forthcoming!

The STAR program takes State tax money from a broad based source and channels it into a School District to help reduce Property Taxes for some of it citizens. There are two parts of STAR, one benefits Seniors, the other benefits all that are eligible. I've provided a synopsis at the end of this post.

But what is most interesting is that the STAR plan is planned to be modified. The modified plan will have the addition of CAPS put on to School District Budget increases! (like in the Contingency Budget, where a CAP of 1.2 times the CPI is required)

This is in an attempt to restrict School Budgets that increase at a rate in excess of the normal inflation! A subject we all seem to know about lately! Our rates of increase over a five year period have averaged well over 4 times the CPI inflation! Last year an increase of 5.5 times the CPI was mandated if we had passed the Budget.

Get the info here on this source - rather than sit at a BOE meeting and never hear about it!


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School TAx Relief (STAR)
Overview

The School Tax Relief (STAR) program was enacted in 1997 to provide needed tax relief for homeowners across the State.

In 2005-06, $3.2 billion will be provided for STAR, an increase of $130 million. This amount includes funds for the enhanced exemption for eligible senior citizens, the basic STAR exemption for other homeowners and the New York City Personal Income Tax reduction.

A new Co-STAR program is proposed to provide county tax relief to residents of counties that keep their annual general fund spending growth at or below the proposed Medicaid spending cap. Co-STAR will be phased-in over a multi-year period beginning with eligible seniors and farmers in 2006-07, and other homeowners beginning in 2008-09.

To protect taxpayers from school tax increases that significantly outpaced inflation, the Governor is proposing to place a cap on the growth in local school budgets. A new STAR tax credit will protect STAR benefits from the effects of inflation in school districts that comply with the proposed spending cap.
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From the State STAR site: www.orps.state.ny.us/star/faq.htm
Q. What is STAR?

A. STAR is Governor George E. Pataki's School Tax Relief Program that provides a partial exemption from school property taxes. All New Yorkers who own and live in their one-, two-, or three-family home, condominium, cooperative apartment, manufactured home, or farm dwelling are eligible for a STAR exemption on their primary residence.

There are two parts to the STAR program:
The Basic STAR exemption is available for owner-occupied, primary residences regardless of the owners’ ages or incomes. Basic STAR works by exempting the first $30,000 of the full value of a home from school taxes.

The Enhanced STAR exemption is available for the primary residences of senior citizens (age 65 and older) with yearly household incomes not exceeding the statewide standard. (The definition of “income” for this purpose is provided later in this pamphlet.) For qualifying senior citizens, the Enhanced STAR program works by exempting the first $50,000 of the full value of their home from school property taxes. For property owned by a husband and wife, or by siblings, only one of them must be at least 65 years of age as of December 31 of the year in which the exemption will begin to qualify for the Enhanced exemption. Their combined annual income, however, must not exceed the STAR income standard.
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State estimated STAR exemptions for 2005-6 are:

Nassau: Basic = $1000; Enhanced = $1,760
Albany : Basic = $630; Enhanced = $970
Suffolk : Basic = $970; Enhanced = $1,480
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[justfacts]

At least that's what the Assessor tells me!

;D I wonder if they'll make out a 1099 Form on that ficticious paper gain and report it to the IRS?

Bite My Tongue! They ARE liable to think of that next!

According to the Nassau County Department of Assessment my house now has increased in market value by $96,100 to $490,500! Not bad for a house I bought for $16,990! ;D

That 24.37% increase for the next two years is coupled with the past increase from $286,500 (2002) to its present $394,400 (2004) to its soon to be $490,500 (2006). That comes out to be a 14.4% increase per year over those four years.

Why!, at that rate, in just seven years my little old shack will have a market value of over $1,000,000!

I wonder if I'll be able to afford the upkeep on my Million Dollar Mansion?

Don't forget, at just today's school tax rates of about $6,000 per year - since I've been paying school taxes since 1959 - that comes to over $280,000 in today's dollar value, that I've paid into school taxes to this District.

What will it be when you've paid taxes for four decades - on your multi-Million Dollar Mansion?[/i]

[Go Plainedge!]

I also received the "wonderful" Nassau County letter. I have a hard to believing the increase in the property values. There are more houses for sale and they are taking longer to sell.

These increased realty inventories are of recent reports. I can't fully believe that in two years, there will be THAT much of an increase. What happens IF and when the values drop? Will my taxes go down? I doubt it.

[justfacts]

Did anyone ever challenge in the courts the fact that unrealized paper value increases are taxable???

Imagine, for instance, if Stocks you held onto for years went up in value and each year you held on to them you had to pay income tax on the increased value. But the year that you go to sell the Stock they drop to the original price you paid - so you really made no gain between the buy & sell price. Can you imagine just how long that system of taxation would go unchallenged in the courts?

That's a system of charging you taxes for paper gains never realized!

But isn't that just what is happening when they "make adjustments" on the paper gains for property values in Nassau County? [/i]

The State is using that fictional number each year to determine the proportion of State Aid that is due to Nassau County residents - in essence - lowering their supporting dollars based on unrealized paper gains in our property values - thus changing our property tax portion of School costs.

They are effectively increasing our property tax based on a fictional paper increase in value of our property. That "formula" for State Aid just doesn't seem "legal" to me!

Are there any lawyers out there that think that this should be challenged in the courts - Wouldn't it make a beautiful and bountiful class action suit![/i]

At least, the talk about the in's and out's of the case would garner a lot of publicity for the firm that took this class action suit on!

[justfacts]

A viewpoint about alternate financing of School Districts.

My ears were still ringing from the enthusiastic rallying crys from the crowd in the office about their "changing the system". But, now the crowd had gone, off to tour the District in support of their candidate. My son John was among them. The candidate promised John that he would be the Court Magician, once he was voted into office. John was good that way, mesmerizing audiences and warming them up to the grand speeches to follow from the Candidate.

I, left alone in the Democratic offices of the Candidate in Mineola, turned to a file cabinet for reading material, awaiting their return hours hence. Then, stranger than fiction, the first folder to hit my eye was "PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENT PLANS." Opening the folder and reading the content I became surprised at the details and the depth of the plans contained therein. I had thought that this was a new concept - but there, for all to see was the intricate details of what was needed to effect the changes - how to take advantage of each event, what had to fall into place first, the three year transition period during implementing the plan and the net realization of monies the plan would produce over the next decade. A detailed step-by-step plan such as this took years of refinement to produce in such detail!

And, I thought that this idea of cutting down on the recent enormous Property Tax increases that funded the School Districts on Long Island was our group's recent idea! How naive of me! Why the accurate details of the Income tax to be garnered over the three year period alone must have taken at least a year to gather and put into place. Let alone the decade long projection of the increasing percentage of income tax required until that source could sustain a major portion of the funds to be needed in the future for School Budget's growth. The carefully thought out plan did reduce, but not eliminate, property taxes. That was so that the voters would still be involved in the School Budget process - keeping some part of the costs in line with their annual budget votes. The thoroughness of this plan made ours look amateurish.

What fascinating reading that made for me. And what an education and insight it gave me into the long term planning for separating the public from its money in a way that they themselves would find agreeable - because the plan included the needed pressures that would be brought to bear on the public through their purse strings. Purse string pressures that would make the public rally round the flag and actually believe that they themselves had suggested these plans and had campaigned to get their legislators to incorporate the changes.

Oh! Bye the bye, the Candidate that my son was out on the road campaigning for was Allard Lowenstein, and the year I read those files was 1968! There's not been a lot of progress made in the ensuing 38 years towards actually changing the School District financing systems, has there?

[justfacts]

The limited number of people signed up on this forum

After attending the meeting of Get out the Vote the other night one person sent me a private e-mail about how great this forum was for the community in bringing many people together and that I, at the meeting, had the chance to place a name from the forum with a face.

This prompted my response via e-mail -one that had a few other observations in it that I'd like to share with some others on the forum.

By the way - to all other "just readers" out there - come on in and sign up! It takes little to do and you don't have to "get active". Just do us the favor of letting us know you are there!

Now on to the e-mail comment:

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Yes Dee -

One astonishing thing I found out at the meeting - the number of persons who have read these posts - and who have not "signed up"!

Many talked with me in detail about various forum topics - some from the deep dark past - but said they did not get on the site to raise a question, make a comment of their own, or clarify a point from their own views.

It seems a lot were intimidated by possible public reaction of others to what they might say! Several years ago I found this same reticence in others who would volunteer to hand out fliers, go door to door, etc. But when it came to stand by themselves, or to express some admirable viewpoints they held, they were reluctant to stand.

One even mentioned "I have to live in this neighborhood. He's likely to sent people around to my house and break my windows if I say that at a meeting. He might even hire someone to follow me around." The "He" referred to Richman. The fear was real and palpable.

It is sad - but this concern over retaliation by a single person or a group is more widespread than what I'd like to believe it should be in Plainedge.

I do know that my property has been egged and my car windshield broken immediately after the one Board member mentioned my name, among four others, as being responsible for last year's second budget defeat. So it does happen here in Plainedge.

I've also been shouted at and cursed, for having voted NO on the Budget (an untrue fact) so rational acceptance of divergent views is not the norm here.

Maybe that is a side item that will disappear when Richman disappears - or maybe it is something we should begin to address and work on in Plainedge. Then, more of our neighbors may begin to express themselves more freely.

Ed.

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