{"id":78330,"date":"2017-03-03T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=78330"},"modified":"2017-03-01T19:21:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T00:21:23","slug":"magee-announces-passage-of-legislation-that-cuts-red-tape-for-star-tax-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=78330","title":{"rendered":"Magee announces passage of legislation that cuts red tape for STAR tax relief"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bill Magee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Assemblyman Bill Magee (D-Nelson) announced that the Assembly has passed legislation to ensure all eligible homeowners get the School Tax Relief (STAR) they\u2019re owed in a timely manner (A.5969<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year\u2019s budget made several changes to the STAR program that increased the red tape that families had to go through to get their deserved tax relief,\u201d said Magee. \u201cMany people have reached out to my office concerned and confused about the changes to the program. It\u2019s clear that we need to fix STAR to make sure people get the relief they\u2019ve come to rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before last year, all eligible homeowners saw a yearly reduction in their school tax bill as part of the STAR program. Now, all new homeowners including those who bought their first home or moved to a different home, as well as homeowners who refinanced an existing loan, have to pay a higher school tax bill and then register for a rebate check from the state in September.<\/p>\n

The changes to STAR have been fraught with red tape and delays with homeowners. STAR checks have often been delayed, and when checks are received it was for an amount that was less than expected. The local assessors are powerless to help homeowners, who must wait for the state Department of Taxation and Finance in Albany to mail the reimbursement check, Magee noted.<\/p>\n

The legislation approved by the Assembly would reverse these changes and transition this program back to the way it was, providing all homeowners with tax relief upfront as a reduction in their school tax bill. The legislation also requires the state to help localities in notifying residents of these new changes to ensure all qualified homeowners receive the exemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything we can do to cut back on bureaucracy and make government work better for families, businesses and farms is my priority,\u201d said Magee. \u201cIt\u2019s important that the STAR program is fixed to ensure homeownership remains affordable for families across Upstate New York.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assemblyman Bill Magee (D-Nelson) announced that the Assembly has passed legislation to ensure all eligible homeowners get the School Tax Relief (STAR) they\u2019re owed in a timely manner (A.5969). \u201cLast year\u2019s budget made several changes to the STAR program that increased the red tape that families had to go through to get their deserved tax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23814,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-kno","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Bill-Magee.jpg?fit=226%2C263&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}