With the U.S. economy still in recovery mode, the high cost of property taxes on the peninsula has recently received increased scrutiny.
Though local officials have said they struggled to keep taxes down in the face increased costs and decreased revenue, Village of Kings Point trustees became the focus of anger from the local civic after approving a 9.8 percent tax increase. Trustees said the steep hike could be attributed in part to increased costs for their village police force.
In the Village of Lake Success, the village police department became a point of contention at a trustee meeting in April when the village board approved a 10 percent increase in the residential tax rate. The police force is nearly half the property tax tab in each village that pays for their own police.
“In this climate, you can’t increase taxes anymore,” said Village of Thomaston Mayor Bob Stern. “It’s tough, but it can be done. Thomaston had a couple of years with no tax increase and we’re happy to have done that.”
Property taxes are based on revenue from commercial and residential properties.
Partial exemptions exist for some veterans and low-income seniors. Local, county, and federal property is wholly tax exempt, as are schools and houses of worship.
A look at Great Neck’s nine villages reveal dramatically different profiles.
While villages like Saddle Rock, Kensington and Kings Point are bedroom communities with almost no commercial property, the Villages of Great Neck Plaza and Great Neck have small but lively downtowns.
The Village of Great Neck Plaza, which does not have its own police department, has had five years in a row with no tax increase, said Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender.
“Even though our expenses have gone up, we have been able to maintain,” she said.
The Village of Great Neck Plaza has the same tax rate for commercial and residential properties with no way to determine percentages of each.
“Proportionately, even though they are taxed at the same rate, [commercial is] worth more,” she said.
In the Village of Great Neck, there is a differential tax rate for commercial and apartment buildings, a category that includes 15 percent of the village, said Village of Great Neck Clerk-Treasurer John Dominsky.
Exempt properties make up 20 percent of the village, due to the high volume of houses of worship, schools, and other exempt categories.
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said the high volume of exempt properties shifts a higher tax burden onto taxpayers.
The village with the most substantial commercial corridor is Lake Success.
Though their police costs are higher due to commercial development, nearly 53 percent of the property tax tab is picked up by commercial businesses, said Village of Lake Success Mayor Ronald Cooper.
“The fact that we have a substantial commercial sector enables the village to only pay 47 percent of running the village,” he said.
In the Village of Kensington, which only has two commercial properties and a village police force to maintain, there has been no property tax increase for three years in a row.
In Great Neck Estates, which also has a police force, the tax increase is 3.97 percent, down from a proposed tax increase of 4.77 percent.
“They worked hard,” Village of Great Neck Estates Village Administrator Kathleen Santelli said of village trustee’s efforts to keep taxes down.
Of nearly $19 million in assessed value for taxable properties, 5.3 percent of the Village of Great Neck Estates is commercial.
The one place where every business benefits every resident is through school taxes.
“Generally they don’t put children into school, which is an expensive thing,” Stern said of commercial businesses. “They do pay school taxes, so they are good residents.”
