County by county property tax comparison in NYS

Property taxes are compared between counties in NYS. (Note: data was not available for all counties.)

A few weeks ago the Tax Foundation released a report that claimed St. Lawrence County had some of the highest properties taxes in the nation.  Dave Fenton, our treasurer, was skeptical of the report and went to look at the data more closely.  He and I both worked on trying to understand the situation better.

The data on St. Lawrence County that made the headlines is the ratio of property tax with respect to median home value compared on a nation-wide basis.  But this may not be a fair comparison, because as the data shows we have a very low relative home value---so the ratio is high.

There are several other ways to make relative comparisons, and as you look at the data for NYS more closely St. Lawrence County actually looks pretty good, relatively. 

·       The median properties tax paid in St. Law. Co. was the lowest compared to the other 38 counties for which data is available. 

·       As a percent of median income, St. Law. Co. has the lowest property taxes compared to other counties.  Of the data available here, this metric probably gives the best picture of property tax burden since it indicates, in general, the amount of property tax relative to an ability to pay. 

·       The median property tax relative to median home value is 18^th out of 38 counties, just about in the middle, so even in this measure we are not doing too badly for NYS. And again, we have to keep in mind that this ratio is skewed by our low home values.

·       The median home value is St. Law. Co. is 37^th out of 38 counties.  Having low home cost would often be considered an advantage, i.e., we have more affordable housing compared to most counties in the state. 

I found this data interesting and surprising.  Now it is true that property taxes are relatively high in NYS, but making comparisons to other states is problematic because other states can use a quite different tax structures to collect revenues. The data shows that with respect to property taxes St. Law. Co. appears, on average, to be a relatively inexpensive place to live in NYS.  I know it does not often seem that way, but I guess if you were living someplace else in the State it would!

By this analysis I do not mean to imply that everything is fine with our property taxes; not at all. I think our property taxes are too high and too regressive and we should be working hard at reducing them. 

But I also think it is important to be fair in the data analysis.  I think St. Lawrence County has gotten a bad rap with this Tax Foundation headline, and I wanted to bring more detail into the record.