A modest proposal: Don't pay your property taxes in 2008

To the editor: Despite promises to the contrary, the state government of New York has failed to significantly reform education funding. Republicans blame Democrats, the Senate blames the Assembly and the Governor points at both. To soothe the easily mollified voters, they offer us a rebate, which amounts to nothing more than a band-aid for hemorrhaging New York homeowners. So what can we do? Well, conventional wisdom tells us that in our representative democracy a citizen’s best course of action is to participate in the policy process by meeting with elected officials and lobbying them to deal with the issue. Many New Yorkers have done just that, including myself, but if you compare your 2007 property tax bill to your 1997 bill, you’ll get an idea of just how effective that has been. Candidates for the state Assembly and Senate would recommend that our best course of action would be to vote out the incumbents in the 2008 election. While such a sentiment might make us feel good when we’re behind the curtain in the voting booth, the reality is that choosing between a republican and a democrat is nothing more than a Hobson’s choice. The answer, however, lies in the power of the purse. At last year’s education funding town hall meeting held at Warwick High School, I was struck by something that our state Senator, Mr. Morahan said. He stated that the state has the money to fund education at a higher rate, it’s just whether they want to spend it or not. Clearly, they’ve decided that they don’t. But what if they don’t have our money? Here’s what I suggest: If your property taxes aren’t escrowed for you, don’t pay your school taxes next September. Wait until after the 2008-2009 school year ends. Yes, you’ll incur a penalty and will ultimately have to pay more for that year, but it would force Albany into action. Just think, if one hundred thousand homeowners didn’t pay, that could result in a budgetary shortfall of one billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.” That would grab Albany by the fiscal gonads and get their attention, wouldn’t it? Ironically, if such a groundswell of civil disobedience actually happened, you could be certain that Albany would act swiftly to penalize us to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. This is of course, just daydreaming on my part. The reality is that our property taxes will be double what they are now in approximately eight or nine years. There is one viable solution to lowering your property taxes that will work, one that a lot of New Yorkers are actually doing. Move out of the state. Blaine Alvarez-Backus Village of Florida