Letters to the Editor
Property taxes: Income is a much fairer measure
By Jack Beilman
Jan 4, 2008, 10:22

Referencing an article that appeared on SUWNY on 12/28/07, newly appointed Town of Lancaster Assessor Dave Marrano was quoted as saying, “By January I should have a good feel for what’s going on in the town regarding residential and commercial property values and where we stand on the equalization rate.”

For some time in the middle of 2007, the press reported there was much discussion of equalization rates by the Lancaster Town Board, the Town assessor, the NY State Office of Real Property Services and even the Lancaster School Board.

All parties seemed to address the subject like it was a sort of black magic. Clearly no one really understood the matter. That’s true, and easy to say, because the whole idea is nonsense in the purest meaning of that word and, by definition, nonsense cannot be understood.

(Unfortunately, it does create useless “busy” work for the assessor’s office at additional cost to the taxpayer.)

It is elemental arithmetic that the value of a fraction is unchanged IF the numerator and denominator are changed by the same percentage amount. A taxpayer’s tax obligation is the ratio of his assessed value to the total taxable base (of the village or town or school district) multiplied by the corresponding budget. .

Assuming equal application to all properties (as required by law), whatever equalization rate might be chosen, the numerator (assessed value) and the denominator (total taxable base) are changed by exactly the same amount. Thus, the equalization rate has no effect whatsoever on the tax obligation of a taxpayer or the total tax collections!

(There may be some impact on state aid between school districts using different equalization rates but this is equally nonsensical.)

Note that the Tax Rate is not determined specifically by the town, village or school district, it is simply their budget divided by their applicable total taxable base.

It is important to note that there should be only one measure of assessment value.
It is the determination of “market value” which, except for current or recent sale, is still only some assessor’s opinion or guess. The government does not need or want your property. They want your money!

Reasonably initiated some 200 years ago, property ownership is no longer the fairest measure of ability to pay taxes (especially for retired persons on fixed income).

Income is a much fairer measure! Unfortunately, we are committed to a bureaucracy of Real Property Services costing hundreds of millions of dollars annually in New York State when the necessary income data is already available at little cost from the IRS.


Jack Beilman,
Lancaster N.Y.











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