A brief observation. 

I came across a list of so called “myths” of the property tax on a page of New York State’s Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS) this morning.  Myth number three is entitled, “NY State collects too much money through property taxes.”  The myth is then debunked by the state, which, accurately, writes that the state government does not receive any money from the real property tax, and that, rather, the revenues are collected by local governments and school districts.  The explanation goes on to say that this is the reason tax assessments are administered locally and not by the state government.

All true, but if we as citizens of the state are principally concerned with good governance and appropriate levels of taxation, then conceptually we should not forget that what is causing New York State to be the leader in population loss is the overall tax burden levied between the state and local governments and schools.  And while the state may not administer or collect the property tax directly, it wields unconscionable power to push its own unfunded mandates onto local governments and school districts, which have no choice but to add what should properly be state tax items to the local property tax, causing it to rise without an equivalent increase in the level of local services.

So, in effect, through poor state fiscal control and a lack of responsibility at the state level, New York State government does raise funds to pay for its costs through the property tax.  Local governments and school districts are left with little choice but to levy and collect these amounts, and pay them on through.  Worse yet, while the advantage of local property taxes is that citizens can directly challenge an assessment through a legal process, there is virtually nothing an individual can do to challenge a tax rate that is artificially inflated, for political reasons, by the state government.

A myth?  Perhaps not, depending on how you look at it.