CHENANGO COUNTY – Some Chenango County families could be in for a surprise come late September when checking the mailbox. A New York State check worth $350 could be waiting for them.
The state is gearing up to start mailing out the first its two tax rebate programs this fall. Upstate families with children along with a tax refund for homeowners could potentially reap some coin by year’s end.
The surprise allotment comes courtesy of Governor Andrew Cuomo along with helping hands of members of the state Legislature, many of whom are up for re-election in November.
Currently, there is little indication as to whether the signing off of the more than $750 million in tax breaks for families and homeowners by the Cuomo administration will distract voters at the polls this fall.
After a year marked by a more than ten percent slip in Cuomo’s approval rating – stemming from a federal anti-corruption investigation that was launched in March of this year – some argue that the program is smoke and mirrors.
To be eligible for the program, recipients need to make at least $40,000 to a maximum of $300,000 annually and have at least one child under the age of 17 as of December 31, 2012.
The disbursement is the first (and only cash-in-hand) part of a three-year program that was weaved into the state budget that included keeping higher taxes on millionaires and bringing minimum wage up to $9 an hour by the end of 2015.
With a median income of $39,711 for families in Chenango County, the likelihood of local working families who may have benefited from the tax break is much lower versus the state averge where median incomes hover at $57,683 according to the census.gov website.
In addition to the income-based tax relief, Cuomo and the Legislature are dolling out a rebate attached to the “property tax freeze” that was introduced in March of 2014. The property tax freeze provides a rebate to homeowners whose local governments and schools stayed under the state-mandated two percent property tax cap.
“The rebate will be for the amount of the increase in school taxes approved by voters in the spring, thus freezing people's tax bills,” Cuomo said.
Homeowners will be reimbursed the difference of the tax increase if their school district stayed under the two percent tax cap. For example, if a school district met the tax cap but school taxes went up $50, then the state would issue a $50 rebate check.
The school tax rebate is a three-year program that is expected to provide more than $1.5 billion in direct property tax relief, Cuomo's office said. The program is limited by the same eligibility as the state's STAR property-tax rule. Households with adjusted gross income of more than $500,000 are ineligible. The break is only available on primary residences.
While Cuomo is touting the relief as a hit, some critics – including Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino – have denounced the rebate checks as election-year gimmicks. In a press release, Astorino called them “all a part of the corrupt system in Albany that abuses taxpayer dollars for personal political gain.”
Cuomo, on the other hand continues to praise both rebate programs.
Taxpayers should begin to see the rebates trickle in starting in mid-September, according to the Governor’s website, subject to eligibility.