CORRECT: Town residents do, in fact, pay a proportionate share of total property taxes. Property taxes levied for all purposes (municipal, county, school and other) amounted to nearly $7.3 billion in 2003, and of this amount, town taxpayers paid nearly $2.4 billion, or about 32.3% of the total tax bill. Town taxpayers pay relatively small amounts of taxes overall for municipal purposes (town budgets demanded only $177 per capita in 2003, compared to $381 per capita for village budgets and $403 per capita for city budgets), Yet the fact is that town taxpayers (who are 30% of the population) paid 37.7% of K-12 school taxes and 42.3% of county taxes. In other words, townspeople paid more than a proportionate share of school and county tax levies.
Thus, the charge that town residents fail to carry their fair share of the property tax load is not borne out by the data.
To Learn More: Do Town Taxpayers Pay a Fair Share of Taxes?