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Alliance
Guiding Principles Blueprint Process Blueprint Points: 1. Aquatic and Terrestrial Invasive Species 2. Acid Rain 3. Global Climate Change 4. Main Street Revitalization 5. Water, Sewer and Storm-water Infrastructure 6. Marketing and Entrepreneurial Development 7. High-Speed Telecommunications 8. Workforce/Community Housing 9. Transportation Infrastructure 10. Energy 11. Effective Governance and Policy Framework 12. Land Use Change 13. Property Taxes 14. Primary Healthcare Crisis Appendix Procedures and Schedule Founding Sponsors Alliance Core Team July 2007 Forum Participant List |
BLUEPRINT FOR THE BLUE LINETHE
COMMON GROUND ALLIANCE
FEBRUARY 2008 BLUEPRINT POINTS 14. PRIMARY HEALTHCARE CRISIS RATIONALE: As currently structured, property taxes are used to finance too many programs of our ever-growing government and are contributing to the destabilization of Adirondack communities. Attempts by the Legislature and Executive Branch to lower taxes have usually focused on income taxes. While there have been significant reductions in income tax rates, government spending at the federal, state and local levels have continued to grow. This shift has resulted in huge federal deficits and has moved the tax burden for mandated programs to state and local governments. Adirondack communities and other rural areas of upstate New York can no longer afford to fund schools with property taxes. School taxes now exceed local government taxes in many places in the Adirondacks, (e.g., the Saranac Lake Central School District). Property tax assessment rules have a negative impact when they result in annual taxes going up in “lock-step” with rapidly rising property values, especially when an adjacent property sells for a much higher price than paid for the property. Low and middle-income people are finding it necessary to move out to avoid prohibitively high tax increases. Some states have instituted “welcome stranger” laws, where assessments are NOT raised on nearby properties when a newcomer pays above-market prices for a home or land. SUGGESTED ACTION:
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