Taxes Are Set To Drop In Erie County , New York

Taxes in New York State is always a major concern that impacts everyone and for years we have paid some of the highest taxes in the country. A recent announcement made by some local government officials that some of us in Western New York will start to see a nice decrease in the amount of money we continue to the government.

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On Thursday, December 1, 2022, the Erie County Legislature voted on the amended county budget for 2023 and it passed in a unanimous vote of the members. In the budget, government officials have announced the property county tax rate is going to drop by $0.40 per $1,000 of assessed value to $3.92 per $1,000.

The amended budget that has been approved today by both the majority and minority caucuses keeps the tax levy under the tax cap, and reduces the property tax rate to a historic low of $3.92 per thousand. The Legislature has increased funding to neighborhood agencies and cultural programs that provide much needed services to families and communities across our county of nearly 1 million residents.
-April Baskin, Chair of the Erie County Legislature

This new tax rate means that a house in Erie County that is taxed at $150,000 would get a county tax bill of $588 in 2023. This reduction is relatively rare in Western New York as most municipalities in the area have pretty high taxes.

This is the fifth consecutive year we have lowered that rate and the eighth time overall since I took office, and as a result Erie County now has the lowest property tax rate in WNY. In other good economic news, for the ninth consecutive year Erie county will be retiring more debt that we issued, adding up to over $158 million in retired debt since 2012.
-Mark Poloncarz, Erie County Executive

Under the new budget, Erie County will spend more than $1.6 billion in its general fund, with more than $190 million going toward Medicaid assistance, $85 million going toward capital improvement projects like roads and bridges, and Erie County paying off more than $45 million in debt that the county holds.

You can view a copy of the new 2023 Erie County budget here.

See The 10 States With The Highest Tax Burden

We can count on two things in life. Death and taxes.

In the state of New York, we can count on those taxes being high. But how high is our tax burden in the Empire State versus other states?

Wallethub recently ranked each of the 50 states based on overall tax burden which they define as "...the proportion of total personal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes." These rankings base that ax burden number on property, income, and sales taxes.

Here are the top 10 states from those rankings, And, yes, no surprise - New York made the list. But are we that bad off? See where New York ranks!