Taxing Long Island: The high cost of school taxes continues to weigh on the minds of many Long Islanders
In New York, school taxes make up the vast majority of your property tax bill.
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As school districts across Long Island unveil their budget plans to residents -- the high cost of school taxes continues to weigh on the minds of many.
In New York, school taxes make up the vast majority of your property tax bill. Across the state, more than 60% of your bill goes to schools. That number pushes closer to or even exceeds 70% depending on where you live on Long Island.
There have been attempts to change the makeup of property tax bills. In 2021, then state Sen. John Brooks (D-Seaford) authored a bill that would have shifted the school tax burden away from many residential property owners -- with the potential to cut taxes in many Long Island communities by as much as 50%. Brooks says the plan would have particularly benefited communities with small commercial tax bases -- like his hometown of Seaford. But the legislation never made it out of committee.
"People in the legislature, and the City of New York in particular, didn't want to do that. And they had a perception that Long Island is rich."
"We legalized gambling, sports betting, then marijuana sales. Every time we had a new source of revenue, that could have helped us fix the problems in school funding, we came up with some other new game to give money to," Brooks said.
School district budget votes will take place on May 20.
