Albany Government Law Review

The property tax burden in New York State is jeopardizing the sustainability of New York’s entire property tax system. In reaction to property tax growth rates that are substantially higher than income growth rates, and an abnormally high property tax burden, New York taxpayers are beginning to organize an anti-property tax campaign reminiscent of the “taxpayer revolution” that led to voter initiatives such as Proposition 13 in California during the 1970s. In response to growing voter dissatisfaction, and perhaps to prevent a property tax rebellion, numerous measures to improve the property taxation system in New York have been proposed. Unfortunately, however, many of these proposals merely shift the property tax burden from one set of taxpayers to another or shift revenue collections from property tax to a different type of tax and therefore address only the consequences of the underlying problem and not the problem itself.