STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nothing seems to rankle homeowners on Staten Island quite like the dense procedures used to calculate property taxes. The results can be maddening. So it?s good to find that the city Department of Finance has finally agreed to create and distribute a pamphlet that is aimed at explaining the convoluted system in plain English.
That promise was obtained from Finance Commissioner David Frankel by City Council members James Oddo (R-Mid-Island) and Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore).
In response to a letter from them, Mr. Frankel acknowledged, ?The property tax system is extraordinarily complex and nuanced.?
Which means it will take time to produce a clear and effective explanation of how property owners are taxed, according to the commissioner.
He says the brochure won?t become available during the current tax season. It?s not due to be distributed until the next round of bills are issued.
This underscores just how difficult it has been for the average taxpayer to figure out the murky rules.
We will just have to wait and see how useful the simplified booklet ? ?Property Taxes for Dummies? ? will be after the experts manage to put it together.
There is obvious reason for skepticism.
We have noted on this page that property taxes are ?the most notorious means by which the city extracts money from New York City residents.?
Our stated view of the process: ?It?s akin to a game of three-card Monte.?
For example, the assessed value of properties ? the basis for setting the level of taxes ? keeps changing arbitrarily. Only too often it?s a rising figure.
Even in our depressed economy, City Hall expects revenues from property taxes to rise from nearly $18 billion this fiscal year to over $20 billion in 2016.
The Bloomberg administration is happy to sit back and claim it hasn?t imposed new taxes on the public. Yet the fact is, the hikes in property taxes are fluctuations built by design into a money-making labyrinth.
Want one of the official explanations?
According to a spokesman for the Department of Finance: ?The value that homes are taxed on is capped to prevent large year-to-year increases in a rising market and phase-in over time. As a result, assessed values can rise even after a market levels out or falls.?
To be specific, the spokesman points out, the assessed property value, which is used to calculate the tax bill, can only legally increase by six percent a year with a maximum increase of 20 percent over five years, which protects homeowners from large market swings but can eventually lead to surprising and frustrating adjustments.
Duh? You said it.
Make the rules on property taxes understandable and transparent ? that?s what Mr. Oddo and Mr. Ignizio want.
We do too.
Source: http://www.silive.com/opinion/editorials/index.ssf/2012/02/time_for_city_hall_to_explain.html
air jordan 11 concord unemployment extension the thin man republic wireless space ball drops on namibia prometheus colts
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন