Controlling Property Taxes with Alternative Revenues Property Taxpayer Protection Act - Part II.

Controlling Property Taxes with Alternative Revenues

Property Taxpayer Protection Act – Part II

Westchester County taxpayers pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

To help provide some relief, the State Legislature has passed several bills that provide revenue-raising alternatives to property taxes which will help hold down property taxes in our county and local communities. 

I call two of these the Property Taxpayer Protection Act Part I and Part II. The two are revenue-raising alternatives to property taxes which will help fund basic and necessary services and reduce or eliminate the need for property tax increases by all local government.

Part I allows local governments to collect a small hotel occupancy tax, paid largely by out-of-towners who visit our hotels, (which I will discuss in my next e-news.)

Part II provides for a small increase in Westchester County’s sales tax.

Signed by the Governor a few weeks ago, Part II authorizes a small increase in Westchester County’s sales tax, which will produce millions of dollars for our county, towns, villages and school districts. The county executive has already promised that as a result of the new revenues there will be no county property tax increase for at least for the next two years. In addition, the legislation contains a sharing formula which ensures that localities and school districts also get additional revenue to ease the burden on local property taxpayers.

The following are projections of revenues that each municipality and school district could receive from this small increase in sales tax – so as long as our economy stays strong.