Even this year’s best haunted Halloween houses, and the vacant foreclosure homes which are plaguing some Long Island neighborhoods have nothing on the zombie property tax system which continues to plague local homeowners.
Long Islanders are consistently fed numerous reasons why their property taxes are so high, that something is being done to help them, or failing this at least good patriotic reasons for forking out so much each year. It’s like pumpkin pie. Sometimes it can taste really good, but eventually too much of it just leaves you with a stomach ache.
Yes, it would be great if we had more affordable housing. Unkempt, bank owned homes are a pain, and it is unlikely plans to recoup tax payer money will ever pan out as expected. It would be noble if we had a better education system, and there are few things more important for the future than learning.
However, some must be wondering why after all the money plowed into education and paychecks no one has been able to come up with a way to fix the ugly Long Island property tax system which refuses to die. It has been publicly admitted that the system is broken, and billions of dollars are reportedly being sent out in NY tax rebate checks as a temporary sweetener, on top of the mountains of dollars many have been able to claw back by filing property tax grievances. Yet, you’d think with all the money and time going into these efforts it may have been wiser and more fiscally responsible to just fix the system and stop overcharging Long Island homeowners.
High tax rates and bills are one thing. Systematic and repeatedly incorrectly overcharging local homeowners is something quite different.
This broken system is going to be one tough monster to slay. The best strategy by far continues to appear to simply be to keep filing personal appeals and obtaining well deserved property tax adjustments with the assistance of local property tax professionals. This not only means keeping more cash in your pocket, but eventually ought to make it unarguable that it is most cost effective to find and apply a cure to the system.