If they dont raise some other in it's place it would be great.

Then they will make up the money by increasing "fees" as we know them to be
tax increases, on other things, such as licenses, permits, other items, and think
we are all too stupid to realize it. Just to keep there party looking good,like
they helped us. Thats fine, if it works without causing other fees to go up.
Also, I just heard the state will supposedly have a defecit..Here we go again.
Take the rebates, help out the factories so they can give them some incentive to stay here and keep the jobs here.

I always thought the Lottery money was suppose to be used for education - where does that money go?  In Florida they do not have a school tax as it is completely funded by their Lottery.  Also, maybe the teachers' unions will stop being so demanding and stay within the salary scale of other professions.

Sharon hit the nail on the head.  They are the biggest cause for high school taxes, teachers unions. My neighbor once was a school board president. Its not what the district can afford. Its what the teachers unions demand and get. The heck with the taxpayer, just raise taxes. No private industry or business runs that way. I say hand out school vouchers and let parents decide.

I would just like to get my 2007 Star Rebate Check from last year that was promised within three weeks of applying online, and after four months have yet to recieve. This is all a joke and don't be fooled, taxes will just go up in another form, somewhere else. It's just a game,  the poor and lower middle class are getting poorer and those in government get richer...... Will it ever change?

This is another way for the state to get control over our local communities through financial means.  It will also enable them to blend the education funds in with the general fund and keep using the excuse of more money for education when they raise our taxes and fees.  One thing they don't need is another reason to get more money out of us.  Education funding solely from the State will enable them to take money from the taxpayers in more efficiently run school districts and distribute it to those that are less efficient without us ever knowing.

Let's hope the Republicians aren't playing politics! We need to put the lottery money to it's original purpose and reduce our school taxes considerably or eliminate them. As a real estate broker, I am tired of helping people moving out of NYS because the taxes are too expensive.

Bring it on, hopefully half the residents in our state won't have moved away by the time this happens...

Our dysfunctional State Legislature remains in violation of a court order mandating a more equitable method of distributing State aid to local school districts. The current system is blatantly unfair and fails to provide adequate funding to districts of greatest need including the City of Syracuse. Putting all education funds under the control of the bureaucrats in Albany would simply be a disaster. Local taxpayers in most districts would lose the only voice they have; namely the annual budget vote.

Are there better solutions? I’ll offer several suggestions.

First and foremost, force the Legislature to meet its standing obligation: reform the current system for distributing State aid. Short of impeaching key elected officials, I admittedly am at a loss on how to ‘force’ this issue.

That leads directly to my second suggestion: stop reelecting people who won’t do their jobs.

Third, give voters in city school districts a direct voice in the local budget process. Allow property owners to vote annually either on an entire City budget which includes education funds or on a separate school budget like all other districts in the State.

Forth, and most important in my opinion, give local municipalities the power to audit school districts. That authority currently rests with the State, and once again, they simply don’t do the job. Several years ago after uncovering extensive fraud and corruption in several down state districts, the State Comptroller established a plan to audit every district in the State over a five year period. That initiative has largely fallen by the wayside. School districts have the right to levy property taxes against local municipalities. The municipalities should have the right to audit school district expenditures and mandate accountability on the local level.

There are no meaningful checks and balances in this State’s public education system. Granting more ‘authority’ to the bureaucracy in Albany is nothing short of ludicrous.

Eliminate all property tax other than services like sewer water hwy matinenance etc...  Rich or poor our excessively high property taxes lead the nation, it is the most regressive from of taxation available and has nothing to do with an individules ability to pay it.

Anyone  who  believes  school  taxes  will  stop  probably  believes  in  the  Tooth  Fairy !!!   But  they  could  count  on  my  vote !!!

Great! Finally a break for the middle class.Maybe every income earned in the state will pay a percentage of school tax alleviating the burdeon of the property owner.Sounds fair to me.

I've been advocating removing school funding from the property tax system for years.  The old assumption that education improves my property values has long since gone the way of the dinosaur.  Personally, I'd rather pay a 10% surcharge on my income tax than the exhorbitant school taxes I currently pay...it would be far less, and I'm not in a low tax bracket.

Lottery funding might be fine, but in the past, lawmakers have used lottery income to justify reducing spending on education.  Only in recent years has that been seen as a serious mistake.  Nor should we be blaming teachers unions either.  Teachers are no longer paid poverty wages, but neither are they getting rich on current salaries.  Remember that, next to parents, they have the strongest influence on how our children mature and become productive members of society.  They are now contending with school violence, the added burden of being child physchologists, objects of parental frustration.  Compare what they make to a pro athlete or coach, who are nothing more than entertainment.

Sadly, we will probably see the status quo remain for quite some time, since our nearly disfunctional legislature will not take the actions needed to reduce spending elsewhere or admit that they must raise taxes, and the resulting cost to the State will plunge us deeper into debt.  Instead, we will have hidden taxes in the form of higher "fees" for government services that should be covered by the taxes received.

The state government will still get the money to pay for schools from the taxpayers.  The only difference is that the local school boards will have much less to say about how it is used in their schools.  The state will send down mandate after mandate and try to create a cookie cutter school system in the state.
We have all seen how well NYS handles the rest of our tax dollars, do we want to give them even more control of our hard earned money?

Its about time... I cannot believe how much in TOTAL property taxes we pay in upstate... forget about owning a larger home, even if you could afford the mortgage, the burden of larger taxes comes with it.. My family in PA?? 30 minutes outside Philly?? Homes assessed, and NOT EVERY YEAR, at say three quarters of a million.. oh $10,000. in property taxes... $350,000 assessment?  Oh $3,000 in total property taxes... here, in Fayetteville?  A home assessed at $117,500?  Oh $4800.!!!! They better start bringing in new businesses to help offset the taxes here.  That is the biggest problem... all residential for the most part, hence the higher taxes.. NO MORE EMPIRE ZONE BREAKS!!!!

Nice thought.....but it will never happen..How can we justify salaries for teachers who work approx.. 185 days + or - a year...all the holidays off...and work maybe ....32 hrs a wk...and then get tenure to boot!!  No where else can you work and get those kinda fringe benefits..I'm not bashing teachers...I have lots of family members and friends that are teachers...and I too am an employee of a school district but I am not a teacher...and my job isn't secured like there's...if I screw up...I'm gone...and my salary is a drop in the bucket compared to theirs...I understand that they have a much more extensive education but come on....each year my taxes continue to rise...yeah....my kids are all grown up...but I continue to pay ridiculous taxes and frankly I don't know how much longer people can continue this...how do other states manage w/NO SCHOOL TAXES....and they have great education systems...time to vote in NEW POLITICIANS....maybe ordinary people not the millionaires could make a difference.

I lived in the South for a number of years, owned two homes and I was shocked when I moved back home to Syracuse after 20 years away.  My homes in the South were more than twice the value of my the two homes I've owned in Syracuse suburbs and taxes were 2/3 of what I pay annually to NYS.

Property taxes are crippling this State.  Trying to attract the commercial tax base to our local community is very hard when college grads see better salaries and more services for less taxes in other states.  Let's face it the Upstate ecomony is broke and it needs a major overhaul.  Giving away corporate tax dollars are not the answer.

There is a lot of talk about 'Change' in the presidential race but unless you boot the elected officials in Albany out of their offices for not producing the results we need, nothing will change.

Municipalities need to audit school district records and those county executives, Mayors and legislators who fail to do this should be voted out of a job.  Running state, local governments and school districts is just like running a business.  You have only so much captial to work with, when it is exhausted, sacrifices are in order.  There is no silver bullet to managing money (tax payer dollars) - you take in only so much, therefore you spend only that much.  When it runs out, you cut programs/services or increase productivity or consolidate entities for better economies of scale.

To say that the Senate is going to correct this problem is Politics, nothing more than trying to secure votes for the next election.   Reward those who manage our dollars wisely and vote out those that are not willing to make hard decisions for fear of losing votes.  That's how you lower our tax rates and stimulate economic development.

Dear queenie,

Yes, you ARE bashing teachers, and I'm sure some of your best friends are (fill in the blank), too...BTW, I am NOT a teacher.

Teachers are paid for a years worth of work.  School might be in session for six hours a day and 180 days a year, but almost every teacher I know works 8-9 hours a day, on average, for five days a week, for about 200 days a year.  Compared to the typical 261 day "full-time" worker, it's not as many, but teachers are often spending a lot of time furthering their educations during that break.  Only in recent years has a teacher's salary approached that of anyone else with similar responsibilities.

School property taxes are probably the worst possible way to fund our school systems if for no other reason than the amounts made available are so different from district to district.  Live in a high class neighborhood, and the school system is flush wtih cash.  Live in a rural area or poorer district, and there is far less to spend, that's one reason why the NYS began providing direct funding for schools, and why court's have found the property tax system inherently unfair.

Once the state takes over, the teachers will need to negotiate their salary and benefits with them not the local school board.  The state will want a consistent salary plan throughout the state.  Some will make more money and many will make less.  I wonder how that will go over.  Will we have statewide teacher strikes?