42°
Dear Editor:
Wake up folks-- Mr. Gannon is trying to use a classic straw-man argument here-- the fact is that I never stated that the issue of Hyde Park school property taxes here in Clinton was completely solved-- just that I have worked on it.
Fact: I organized and hosted a public forum on this very issue June 25, 2014 at the West Clinton Fire Station #1-- I did apply public pressure (on Democrats on the Hyde Park Town Board) for exactly what Mr. Gannon writes about-- "a town-wide revaluation" of property assessments so that "their tax levy is not pushed on to other adjacent towns"-- I wish Mr. Gannon had stayed in touch with me and worked together on this.
Here's part of the letter that I circulated at the April 13, 2015 County Legislature meeting for a county-level option here to eliminate school property taxes and fund local schools through income taxes instead-- signed by County Legislators Micki Strawinski and Francena Amparo; even misogynist GOP County Legislator Joe Incoronato, God help us all
( https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2015/04/re-school-property-taxes-time-to.html ):
"We, the various undersigned members of the Dutchess County Legislature, strongly urge you pass and sign into law an updated version of State Senator John Bonacic’s S.164 school finance reform legislation from a decade ago...
...a voluntary county-by-county plan that would allow Dutchess voters (and those in other counties) to eliminate the property tax on all primary residences (the property tax would remain for second residences and commercial properties), set up a county administering agency here in Dutchess, and replace local costs of public education with a countywide income tax in Dutchess, to greatly lower the burden of property taxes on the vast majority of middle and lower-income local residents.
Fact: State Senator John Bonacic’s legislation is somewhat like bipartisan Cahill/Molinaro Equity in Education Act legislation [also co-sponsored by Terry Gipson] that would similarly, completely eliminate school property taxes across the state, funding public schools instead through a progressive education income tax surcharge..."
>Yours,
>
>Joel Tyner
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