Seems that our County Legislature wants to close a very large budget hole by voting to remove a property tax cap, to hit property owners with an additional increase in property taxes of somewhere between 5 and 10 percent. Simply stated, the property taxes in Sullivan County are "TOO DAMN HIGH" as it is, and the citizens simply cannot afford another rise in already exorbitant county property taxes, and in the case of those who rent, they cannot afford rent increases in a time of economic despair that most landlords would want to levy to offset such a property tax increase.
As example, looked at a house for sale the other day which is on the market for $70,000 (asking price) and the yearly property taxes on this property are $3,300 per year...almost five percent of the total value of the property if you were to pay full asking price for it. Do the math, and you realize every 20 years would see you paying the full value of your house in property taxes. When the property owners of the county say they "just cannot afford any more taxes" they are very serious, and speaking from their hearts. There is something terribly wrong when the escrow amount to pay property taxes would be more money than the mortgage itself would be.
Perhaps it is time to wake up to a simple reality...Sullivan County needs more year around residents, and far fewer summer visitors...yes, our sales tax collections are slowly recovering to prerecession levels, but what hurts the budget is a simple fact...summer residents only pay sales taxes for three months of the year rather than 12 months of the year. Couple that with the large number of properties that have been granted questionable tax exemptions for claimed religious reasons, and you have to few people being asked to carry to large of a burden. Taking steps to discourage further summer residents, and to build our year round resident population would increase sales tax collections on a year round basis, and take the tax target off the foreheads of our county's home owners.
Logging you in...
can not tell · 657 weeks ago
Go back to the old way years ago all the town supervisors ran the county, legislators are making to much money and get all the benefits. Sorry but we need to cut the payroll some how!!
MountaindaleGuy 19p · 657 weeks ago
Do tend to agree with you on the fact that we have too many properties that not paying their fair share of taxes...when you look at buying a house that is offered for sale at $70,000 and you look up the taxes and find out they are $3300 a year, something is wrong...seriously, my tax hit if buying the house would be as much as the mortgage payments...that is a system that is way backward.
Also think Sullivan County has to look at our summer visitors and realize a bigger problem...too many summer residents, and not enough year around residents. Summer residents only pay sales taxes for about three months of the year, rather than twelve months a year...this 3/4 of a year loss of sales taxes contributes greatly to the high property taxes we find ourselves paying. Which suggests that Sullivan county needs to explore a plan that would make our community less attractive to summer residents, and far more attractive to families that want to call our county home.