» Articles from March 2006
A Small Number That Will Make
A Big Difference To Your Taxes
As applications to build thousands of new homes crowd the desks of planning boards in our rural towns, planners and citizens alike are beginning the tricky task of estimating how much these subdivisions are likely to raise our property taxes to pay for the new schools, roads and other public services their future residents would require.
Much of the debate over forecasting the impact of development on our taxes can be boiled down to a single number: how many children from each of the new proposed homes will enroll in our public schools. With school taxes accounting for more than two-thirds of most property tax bills, and with ample evidence that each new home contributes far less in tax revenues than it absorbs in costly public services, the number of additional school students per newly built home– the “enrollment ratio–” is one of the keys to predicting the financial impact of development. Read more
Words Worth Repeating:
“Please let’s not frame this as another ‘us vs. them’ issue. We are all ‘us.’”
– Enid Futterman of Claverack (in a letter to The Independent on efforts to disrupt support for a state-owned rail trail in Columbia County).
County Budget Scorecard– 2006
Updated comparisons of 22 New York counties on various measures of fiscal discipline.