My wife and I own some land in Lewis County, NY, and when we got the tax bill this year, attached to it was a one-page “Truth in Taxation Report.” Sent out in accordance with new County legislation, the report is, it says, “...designed to provide a legal mechanism to ensure that citizens receive accurate tax bill information on State Mandated Programs and the effects on County Budget. State Mandates are established by the State, with no County input, and are paid for through the property tax.”
There follows a list of eight major Lewis County programs required by NY State law, and the cost of each. The total (over 11 million dollars for a county more rural than Otsego) is provided, and then the kicker: this total accounts for 90% of the entire tax levy.
Enthusiastic capitalization notwithstanding, this is an intriguing report, and the clarity of its presentation makes a clear and cogent point. I attended an all-day workshop for new County legislators a couple of weeks ago (presented expertly by the NY State Association of Counties (NYSAC)), and heard a lot about state mandates; 90% seems pretty typical, but one of the suburban counties south of us (Rockland, I think) was up to 120%.
Many programs and processes required of counties in NY are reimbursed by the state, but many are not; it's not clear whether Lewis County's 90% was made up entirely of the latter, but either way, this is an important point. In most counties, Medicaid comprises the largest of these items (by far), and the county taxpayer would be justified in scratching his/her head and asking, “But I though Medicaid was a Federal program?”
It is, but states pay up to half the bill, for reasons I don't have room to go into here. And for other reasons, even more obscure and complex, only about half of the states require Counties to pitch in. According to a National Association of Counties 2010 report, New York counties pay many times more (a total of over $6 billion) than the counties of any other state – including California, whose overall Medicaid bill is half as much again as New York's.
The Governor's budget, being negotiated right now, includes what has been touted as 'mandate relief,' but, in these tough times, the dollar amounts are relatively small. Counties won't be paying less for anything, as it stands now; however, increases in the various bills will be capped (and, in the case of Medicaid, eliminated), eventually.
All this has an impact on Otsego County's budgeting process, and eventually on the tax bill we all pay. We can't cut mandated services, whatever we think of them, and so we need to look elsewhere. “Elsewhere” is getting smaller and smaller. Saying that 90% of the tax levy is mandated services is fudging the whole truth a little bit, but overall, the impact is substantial and is a major issue for us to address in the coming years.
By the way, if you want to let your NY State legislators know how you feel about this, here's where to do it:
Governor Andrew Cuomo's website
NY State Senator Jim Seward's website
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