Excesses of Special Taxing Districts

 

Special Taxing Districts, whose “affected areas” range in size from a few hundred homes to tens of thousands, have ability to collect tax dollars at whatever rate they wish to charge - between 25% to 50% higher than rates charged by towns. To date, there is very little, if any, direct government oversight over how they conduct their business. The result of this is often corruption, patronage, and a complete lack of transparency. In Nassau County, audits and published reports have shown that many, if not the majority, of Special Taxing District employees and commissioners make salaries that far exceed the market rate, or the rate that towns and villages pay for the same services.

Many Special Taxing District employees and consultants receive full-time health benefits for part-time positions. Moreover, there are numerous accounts of employees receiving perks, such as free automobiles, free houses and free dental work - all paid for at taxpayer expense⁴. Recently, it has been documented that Special Taxing Districts have been hiring lobbyists, whose stipends are also paid for entirely with taxpayer dollars.

In many cases, Special Taxing Districts elect their commissioners. However, these “elections” are usually held at odd hours, in inaccessible places, and are not advertised to the public. Research indicates that on average, 3% of eligible voters usually participate in these elections⁵. In many cases, the boards who govern these districts do not represent the entirety of their districts. The boards of many districts, sanitation districts in particular, areas are not represented by commissioners as diverse as their jurisdictions. As a result, it is the poor who often suffer the most.

 

Past Action by Special Taxing Districts

 

One of the primary reasons for Nassau and Suffolk County’s enormous property tax burden is various layers of overlapping government. If you compare the amount of taxes paid and overall infrastructure on Long Island to Fairfax and Loudon Counties in Virginia (Washington, DC suburbs) - which are considered to be the most similar suburban region nationwide⁶ - you will find little difference in overall quality of life, but vastly different levels of taxation. This is because suburban Virginia does not have multiple layers of municipal government (town, county, and state) and they do not have Special Taxing Districts.⁷

“Looking to Va. on consolidation”
New York Newsday Letter to the Editor. 2/1/2009

Calls for consolidation invariably spark cries of alarm that services will deteriorate ["Consolidating Special [Taxing Districts] isn't the answer," Opinion, Jan. 29]. But a detailed study by the Long Island Index reveals that such fears are unfounded.

We compared Long Island with the suburban counties of Fairfax and Loudoun in Northern Virginia. Demographically quite similar, the two regions differ most in their government structure. Northern Virginia has a total of 17 government entities, compared with Long Island's 439. This streamlined structure enables the Virginia counties to allocate resources more efficiently and rationally - and spend 31 percent less per capita than Long Island. 

Fire protection is a good example. Long Island, while only 1.3 times larger in area and 2.2 times larger in population, has 6.6 times as many fire stations and 7.7 times as many fire engines. Yet the insurance industry's ratings for fire response times and number of calls show no significant difference. In fact, the Northern Virginians are more satisfied with their local services than Long Islanders by virtually every measure.

Let's build our future on facts, not fears. Can Long Island really lower costs and improve services at the same time? Research says, yes, we can.

Nancy Rauch Douzinas
Editor's note: The writer is president of the Rauch Foundation

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