Abolish Property Taxes?

YES! Please do. You would ask that is ludicrous; how will we pay to maintain the towns?

Let's dissect this a little more. What does property taxes usually pay for? Taxes in New York State pay for a wide array of public programs and services at both the state and local levels, including education, healthcare, public safety, and infrastructure.  I think most of us will agree all these things are truly needed.

If we run down each of the items above we can then determine if we are truly benefiting from what we are suppose to get in return for paying our property taxes:

Education- While this is of importance, I think some can argue they don't have kids, may never have kids or don't have a kid going to school yet. What about the fact that perhaps we may want to send our kid to private school or homeschool? Lastly, what of those that have grown kids? The next question would be why does the whole population need to pay for everyone else's burden and what of those families that only have 1 or 2 kids as oppose to those that have more than this amount?

Healthcare- Does everyone really use state healthcare and also is it truly affordable? The answer is No & No. So why are we paying for a small amount of the population's healthcare? Most people either have health insurance through work or have private insurance or none at all. In addition the state health care is not affordable or budget friendly in anyway.

Public Safety- I think we can all agree safety is of utmost importance. If that is the case why are cops giving out tickets for silly things in efforts of collecting more revenue and why is a blind eye turned on things that truly matter? The list goes on in other departments where overspending is perceived.

Infrastructure-There are a lot of roads with pot holes all over the state and especially in the City which carries the most revenue of pretty much anywhere in the world. Why are these roads not fixed? In addition when construction is on going it seems it goes on forever and we all know there is little accountability on whoever is handling these project deadlines which in turn become more expensive to the public.

Looking at it from a wide angle it seems to me the government is burdening the public on things they shouldn't have to pay such as education and or healthcare. On the other hand they are not managing budgets correctly and overcharging on items like public safety and infrastructure.

My personal belief is we shouldn't be paying for others' bills and there needs to be more accountability for items like roads and law enforcement budgets. In addition there is so many other taxes we pay as citizens and residents that should be already contributing to the public welfare as whole without charging property taxes.

Snow