Many of my friends from other parts of the country appear to on the verge of having a stroke when they hear how much real estate taxes are on Long Island. Many of my friends live in very nice suburban areas outside of New York and cannot fathom how taxes could have gotten so high where I live and work. They have great schools, excellent services, and real estate taxes of generally less than $3,000 per year. In Nassau County, there are more than a small handful of houses where taxes exceed that amount per month.
For example, in Nassau County, a small Cape Cod-style house recently sold in Hempstead for $80,000. This would make it among the least expensive houses in the entire county. What were the real estate taxes? How about $14,262? Yes, the annual real estate taxes equal almost 18% of the value of the house! At a rate of increase of about 6% per year, which is conservative, the homeowner will have had to pay more in taxes by 2015 than they paid for the house and their real estate taxes will have totaled approximately $100,000 for the owners’ by 2016. For those unaware of Hempstead, it could be expected that the real estate taxes would produce fantastic schools. How else could taxes be equal to 18% of the value of the house? Well, let's shine a light on the school district.
In the 2009-10 School Year, Hempstead had 246 High School Graduates. In the same year, they had 157 students that didn’t complete High School. A graduation rate of 61% and a straight drop-out rate of 33% wouldn’t seem to jive with the taxes being paid. (Hempstead doesn't consider former students moving on to other educational facilities without graduating to be drop-outs). In 2008-2009, the total expenditures per pupil were an astounding $23,427, well above the cost of New York State Colleges for in-state students. (Sorry, I am learning as I am writing and I am more astounded than I thought I would be.) Over 45 district employees were earning over $100,000 (back in 2008!) and the Superintendent of Schools was reported to have a salary of $253,332. The average teacher salary was just $50 short of $75,000 per year. This is insane! The school district had a $150,000,000 budget in 2008/09. Well, one easy explanation is that a total of 705 people showed up to cast a vote for the budget. Can you imagine the voter outrage when 705 people vote, yet there are 6,384 students in the district? This is sick.
Well, at least if the taxes are obscenely high, they are probably fair, right? Well, no, it doesn’t appear that’s the case either. Another house sold this year in Hempstead for $415,000 and had taxes of $21,000. So, the tax bill is only 47% higher than the first house mentioned, but the house sold for more than 5X the first house mentioned. Same town – same school district – what gives? Some real estate appraisers or brokers would say, “That’s why you need someone local to explain these things.” The reality is, it is inexplicable.
There are over 125 school districts in Nassau County. Each has its own superintendent, assistant superintendent, secretarial staff, etc. There are 1.4 million residents in Nassau County. New York City has almost 10 times the population of Nassau County and has, yes, ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT AND ONE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS! If, on average, the typical Nassau County District Super earns $250,000, there would be $31,750,000 in salaries. If we multiplied it out for the City of New York at, say, 8X the size of Nassau County, the Superintendent of the New York City Board of Education should be paid $254,000,000 per year. That is just one job being done over 125 times in Nassau County, but able to be handled by one person within the City of New York. One could complain that the New York City Schools are not solid, but, do you find Hempstead’s statistics compelling? Would you rather pay $20,000 in taxes each year to have your child in failing schools, or $3,000, nearer the NYC average real estate taxes and the US Average.
Simply considering the real estate tax issues, how could any voter re-elect any politician in Nassau County? Remember, this Blog discussed only the money being wasted in schools. The balance is being wasted by our politicians. Now that we are in the midst of what might be looked back upon as the Second Great Depression, can we really continue to allow outrages along these lines?
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