Thursday, October 27, 2016

New York's Tax Exemptions For Religious Property Are Growing

The Lower Hudson Journal News this week is running a series on New York's tax exemption policy. An overview of the series reports in part:
Statewide: Thirty-one percent of New York's land value is tax exempt. Of its $2.8 trillion in land value, about $866 billion of it never gets billed.
Religious groups: The value of religious groups' land bypassed for taxation has nearly doubled from $14 billion to $26 billion between 1999 and 2015. Rochester (568 properties worth $141 million) and Ramapo (523 properties worth $265 million) are among the top five communities with the highest number of tax-exempt religious nonprofit properties in the state.
Yesterday's installment titled New York religious property tax breaks soar heavenward reports in greater detail on the increased amount of property receiving tax exemptions because of use by non-profit religious institutions.