This morning in the freeman, there was a small news item on a local Red Hook fellow who has created a website to aid homeowners in reducing their property taxes – when applicable.
Visit Property Tax Data Base for more information.
We are interested in learning if it is useful to our readers. Please leave a comment if you use it with your results either way.
please do not loss sight of the fact that property taxes pay for, child education, police protection, fire protection, infrastructure maintenance, snow & leaf removal, pure drinking water, sanitary sewer treatment, economic development, and more. All essential to modern day living. So the problem is not really the property tax but more the high cost of the essentials. Hence public officials have got to find more economical ways of providing the essentials at much lower costs thus lowering the property tax. That should be the MISSION.
You are right. The cost of services increase along with everything else, and our taxes paid should reflect that. That’s certainly part of it (though management is everything frankly).
I think you are aware of the pretty big issues people have had in the way these assessments were performed. You, yourself – witnessed a pretty major error in what you were paying.
I’m all for fairness in the process – however that may ultimately come. If this tool is effective and useful overall (and we’ll see if it is or isn’t) then that’s a good thing.
Thanks for reading, and for your comment.
While you’re at it, take a look at this:
http://www.openbooknewyork.com/