'Tax Exempts' vs. Tax Exemptions

At last night’s City Council meeting, Councilor Greco read a statement prepared by the City Manager regarding tax exempt property in the City. The statement named some of the properties that are exempt from property tax under NYS Real Property Law (churches, schools, hospitals, etc.). This is called the “mandatory class” and, as the name suggests, no city has the ability to prevent nor to override that exemption. If the City Manager wanted to draw attention to certain tax exempt properties over others, that is his prerogative, but Councilor Greco might go back and ask for a more complete picture of the situation we face.

It’s true that Geneva’s untaxed property represents about 60% of our total assessed value, but it is not true that our major employers (the Hospital, the Colleges, the schools) and our civic and/or charitable organizations represent that entire amount. The fact is that almost half of the city’s tax exempt properties were granted exemptions by the city under various “permissive” provisions of the tax code. That means that a company, organization, or group petitions the City to consider giving it a break on its assessment or a total exemption and the City Council must approve it. A recent example is the Lyceum Street housing project. Many people assumed that this project, on the former Shuron Optical site, was a mandatory exemption because it is managed by the Geneva Housing Authority. But in reality, it is a project of a subsidiary (you can see the organizational structure here) and was granted a tax exemption (not unanimously) as a redevelopment project in a ‘blighted area.’ Was it necessary? The majority of council thought so, including Councilor Greco.

Councilor Capraro requested that the rest of council be given a copy of the memo the City Manager prepared. If the information is important for one councilor to have, it should be information that all councilors can have. We should all be kept apprised of the amount of tax exempt property, but the discussion should be about strategies to mitigate the impact and rein in the situation, not just a way of complaining about things we cannot change.