Suburbs Near NYC Have Highest Tax Bills

Newsday reports:

Homeowners in the suburban counties closest to New York City pay the highest property taxes in the country, a tax research group said Wednesday.

The median tax paid for an owner-occupied house in Westchester County, north of the city, was $7,337 last year, tops in the country, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan group that used Census Bureau data released Tuesday to compare property tax bills. Nassau County, to the east, was second at $7,025.

The median means half the homeowners paid higher taxes and half paid less.

It was no surprise to the executives of Westchester and Nassau counties, who noted that most property taxes are imposed by schools and other jurisdictions, not the counties themselves, and blamed unfunded state mandates for much of the rest.

No wonder New York state is growing slower than the rest of the country.