The property tax cap issue has galvanized voter attention across the state, acutely so in Nassau County; no surprise given its very high and continuously rising level of taxation.
Predictably, this issue has energized both supporters and opponents; each entitled to their opinion.
Yet the argument of the No-Cap crowd is both pretentious and little more than special pleading on behalf of narrow self interest, masquerading as concern for the welfare of all. Their core assertion, relentlessly prefixed with the amorphous collective pronoun ‘We’, is that “We have to pay for these benefits and services or else the community will go to hell in a hand-basket.”
Translated, this means: “Y’all have to pay for these benefits and services because otherwise “I won’t be able to go to a library with state of the art facilities” or “My kids won’t become academically qualified to attend a prestigious university” or “I can’t get any peace of mind unless my teenagers are engaged in activities outside the house.”
In any free society, an individual may persuade another to support their cause but no individual can compel another to do so. The essence of the cap issue is that one class of taxpayer, i.e. property owners, have been compelled to support the unlimited wants of the advocates for the children of the community, for several generations.
This is hardly equitable. Fundamentally, any revenue stream generated from real estate, presumes that property values will rise continuously over time, a self deluding fantasy. Since the current system is economically unsound and therefore unsustainable, change is coming. The only question is, will the No-Cap advocates wake up in time to see reality or will they continue to beat a drum for the status quo.
Tom Coffey
Herricks
