New Paltz – Ulster County has established a Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding and Tax Reform, and Frank Mauro, the executive director of Fiscal Policy Institute, spoke to those at SUNY New Paltz Thursday interested in the problem.

“We’re trying to understand through the impact on the county level of school taxing in general,” said Susan Zimet, D- New Paltz, who chairs the commission.  “If school taxes aren’t paid, the county pays back the school taxes, which most people don’t even know about. We’re trying to explore our role in taxing and also give support to all those reformers and bring the power of government behind them.”

If property owners are constantly upset with their school taxes, the equity of burden may be a big reason.

“One reason is why the state divides the responsibility between itself and local governments for the provision of services, and the property tax is the main tax of  all local governments and the only tax of some, like school districts in counties where sales tax isn’t shared. So there is a lot of pressure on the property tax,” said Mauro.

“So some districts can have very well supported schools with low tax rates, and some districts can’t. The challenge is for state aid to make up the difference and smooth out those inequities.” But Mauro said there are also differences among individual taxpayers and their ability to pay. A circuit breaker, he said, may help alleviate the problem.

“Because almost by definition your property taxes are not related by income and that’s the problem,” he said. “(A circuit breaker) is a refundable tax credit for the portion of your property taxes that exceeds a portion of your income.”

Mauro said, however, there are many things that government needs to address if wants to restore equity to taxpayers and quell the constant backlash.

“Generally reduce the pressure on the property tax by restoring revenue sharing for cities, towns and villages, gradually taking over a greater share of the school budgets, dividing responsibility between the states and counties for Medicaid based on the ability to pay and reform the Star program. All of those things can reduce the pressure on the property tax,” he said. “The circuit breaker is needed to deal with the people who individually burdened.”

Zimet said she has met with lawmakers in Albany to address the tax burden concerns and expects to forward a recommendation next week from Ulster County to lawmakers there. 

Mauro later in the day made his presentation to a group in Goshen.