New York State Assembly Task Force on School Finance and Real Property Taxation Hearing Transcripts

Chronological by date of hearing.

This series contains typed transcripts and statements from five public hearings conducted jointly by the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Task Force on School Finance and Real Property Taxation. The hearings were held from November 29, 1979 to April 17, 1980 to gather public opinion on legislative options for establishing new real property tax systems in New York State.

During these hearings, evidence was given by local government and school officials, business and civic associations, individual homeowners and associations, tenant organizations, local development associations, academic researchers, and others. As expected, representatives of commercial interests saw a need to shift more of the tax burden to residential taxpayers while residential taxpayers stressed the need to protect homeowners from full value assessments at the expense of commercial interests.

The testimony provides a broad range of information on New York's property tax system. Among issues discussed in detail include: 1) how the existing system of property taxation puts an unfair burden on commercial interests; 2) how the adoption of the 1975 court ruling would have a devastating affect on the state's homeowners; 3) how a shift of tax burden from commercial property to residential property might adversely affect the state's economy; 4) what are the options for creating a classification system to provide needed relief from tax burdens for homeowners and other classes of taxpayers; and 5) whether this classification system would be uniform throughout the state or if local governments would be able to adopt systems seen appropriate to local conditions.

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