Submitted by Eve Ann Shwartz, Supervisor
(Town of Hamilton, NY – Sept. 2015) Answer: When the strings attached to the rebate compromise your local municipality’s ability to maintain roads and keep schools open. Albany has imposed a 2 percent property tax levy cap for all towns, counties and villages in New York State as well as a mandate for shared services. In return, local residents will receive a modest rebate from the state. Sounds like a good idea, until you do the math.
How much of a homeowner rebate are we talking about? Based on the average tax rate for the state, an estimate of the average rebate check would be about $34. The rebate plan will cost Albany more than a billion dollars to implement over the next three years, with roughly an additional $1.6 million being spent on the postage to mail the checks. The value of the rebate will vary depending on location, with those living in more expensive downstate areas seeing higher rebates than most homeowners in Central New York.
Commenting on the issue, E. J. McMahon, president of Empire Center for State Policy, a fiscally conservative group in Albany, said the state would be better off addressing the underlying state mandates that drive up costs on the local level.
“It’s purely a political gimmick,” he said of the tax rebate.
What does this mean for the Town of Hamilton? The Town is already sharing services with surrounding towns, villages and the county and enjoying the subsequent savings. The Town Office has implemented new efficiencies, and is constantly looking for new ways to bring down costs. In the meantime, road maintenance and storm responses have brought expenses up. Health care costs for town employees are projected to increase 16 percent in 2015 and SOMAC, our local ambulance service, is requesting significant annual support from the Town. The reality is that these services are vital to the health, safety and well-being of our community, and the price of maintaining them is not cheap. The Tax cap does not take these factors into account and seeks to override how a town and its community determine what must be budgeted to address local needs.
The Town’s options for complying with the 2 percent cap are to reduce the level of services provided by our taxes or spend down our fund balance. That action would impair our ability to respond to emergencies and would create the need for a large compensatory tax increase in the future. The Town Council has worked for three years to get our budget back on a “pay as you go” basis after a large tax decrease in 2011. Complying with the Tax Cap would be an unnecessary step backwards for Hamilton, imposed by Albany.
The Hamilton Town office is located at 16 Broad Street, Hamilton, NY. The Council meets on the second Thursday of each month at the town office. The next regular meeting is Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. and a public hearing will take place on the proposed local law to override the 2 percent tax cap levy for 2015.
The meeting is open to the public and residents are encouraged to attend.
For more information on the Town, call 315.824.3380, or visit www.TownofHamiltonNY.org.