AMY PAULIN IN THE NEWS
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Older Residents Gain in School Tax Relief
By Juli Charkes [The New York Times]
GARLAN GLOVER, 88, is looking forward to the rebate check due to come his way next month. The check — for about $1,180 — is part of the School Tax Relief program, known as STAR, which helps residents offset property taxes. As in past years, the money will help Mr. Glover, a widower who lives in a house here that he helped build in 1954, cover the cost of some basics: groceries, heating and electricity.
“It goes toward regular living,” he said. “It goes in a great big hurry.”
This year, it may go further, thanks to one factor: Mr. Glover’s age. Unlike the checks for Basic STAR recipients, those for homeowners 65 and older — known as Enhanced STAR — are 40 percent higher than last year, said Thomas Bergin of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. His office will begin mailing out those checks this month. About 14 percent of Westchester’s residents are 65 or older.
The increase helps Mr. Glover and others like him at a time when the state is decreasing STAR exemption aid to school districts. That reduction is resulting in higher school taxes for most residents — and offsetting the STAR rebates.
Last spring, state lawmakers voted to decrease STAR exemptions to school districts by 10 percent, though reductions of more than 5 percent in a given year were previously prohibited. At the same time, lawmakers increased the rebate to homeowners 65 and older.
The decision, part of the effort to balance the state budget, saved the state $110 million, said Geoffrey Gloak, spokesman for the State Office of Real Property Services. “In a time of fiscal crisis, we saved the state millions of dollars,” he said.
Local legislators said the move served as a corrective measure, an attempt to bring STAR payments in line with home values that have risen in Westchester.
“Essentially, over the course of time, as property values increased and as STAR payments did not drop, this was an attempt to put STAR back in line with property values,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, whose district includes Scarsdale, Eastchester and portions of White Plains and New Rochelle.
Ms. Paulin pointed to overall gains that Westchester school districts received in the same budget cycle. Overall state aid to Westchester schools increased this year by 9.6 percent, bringing the total to about $625 million, according to the State Education Department — the most state education aid awarded to the county in the past 10 years.
But the decreased STAR aid to schools means homeowners across the board will pay more in school taxes as districts pass on the costs in order to maintain the budgets passed last April, school officials said.
In White Plains, for example, state cuts in STAR aid meant an additional $1 million in taxes was passed on to homeowners, an increase of about 2 percent, said Fred Seiler, the school district’s assistant superintendent for business.
That amount is part of the tax bill paid in July and January by residents of White Plains. For the year, the increase averages out to about $80 more in taxes for the average homeowner in the city, although it could be as much as $200 for owners of more valuable homes.
Lloyd Tasch, the White Plains city assessor, said the 10 percent cut came as a surprise and would affect almost everyone in the community. “It was a major change,” he said.
The STAR exemption cuts come as new figures released by the American Community Survey of the Census Bureau show that Westchester has the highest taxes of any county in the country, a situation that William M. Mooney Jr., executive director of the Westchester County Association, called untenable. “With these tax increases, the economic vitality of this county is going to be hurt,” he said.
School officials said the increased taxes that would result from the decision to cut STAR exemption aid would have a nominal effect on residents.
But Mr. Mooney cautioned that the tax burden on residents had the potential to threaten Westchester’s ability to attract and retain businesses and residents, which is further threatened by the economic crisis playing out across the country.
“In this financial time, every dollar means something,” he said.