This is a sore subject for me. The closest city to me, Ogdensburg NY (not a "city" compared to most), has either 70or 80% of the land within the city in a tax exempt status. Most is owned by State or it's entities, followed by the city, schools, churches and IIRC some Federal property. Our "richest" villages, Canton and Potsdam, are covered in tax free property owned by the State or private Universities. In our little town of 7-800 souls the state owns huge tracts of tax free land. In the Adirondack Park the State owns a large amount of the 6 million acres there. The State actually pays tax to the towns there at a reduced rate. That's right- the State taxes it's citizens to pay a tax on land the State owns, that the citizens are basically barred form making use of other than to walk on it or look at it.
Does this sound sustainable to you? I don't know how things are elsewhere, but here in NY the Gov has shifted a lot of costs onto the counties and they push it onto the tax payer. The NYS Real Property Division, the people who tell us what our towns property is worth and how much we have to raise through taxes, are reported to actively be working to value ALL land at the same rate as residential land! Think about that, who benefits except the politicians running the state that will have oodles more money to use to get themselves re-elected?
So, IMO, no one should be tax free. I don't care if it's your tractor club, a school, a church, the USMC, the Army, National Parks, public authorities, NASA, a college or university or the White House itself. They should all be paying the same income, land and school taxes the rest of us do. Non-profits, not for profit, tax exempt, I don't care what you call it. It all adds up to the land owner and tax payer getting the shaft over and over and over again. Tax them all at a reduced rate or at the full rate, I don't care. But not having to pay any taxes is simply wrong. The alternative is to cut taxes on the land owner and taxpayer drastically. I know that won't happen.
This post was edited by Bret4207 at 05:14:18 03/22/15.
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