This past year, an issue that flew under the radar for many was the shift in New York’s STAR Program. This shift, while small, is already leaving many New Yorkers uneasy and overburdened. While the objections to this shift in the STAR Program have been well documented, legislation to revert the program to its previous state has stalled.

In the next few weeks, many of you will be receiving your bill for this year’s school property tax. While some of you won’t notice a change in your bill from previous years, some of the new homeowners across the state will. With the previous STAR Program, New York State would automatically deduct the homeowner’s STAR savings from the school property tax bill, and the homeowner would pay the balance of the bill shown. Those who purchased their current home prior to last year are grandfathered in to the previous program. New homeowners, however, must pay a full property tax bill up front, and receive a STAR savings in the form of a rebate check.

A major concern was that these new homeowners would essentially be giving their local government or school district a loan of 13-14 percent, and then would be dependent on the state to return the loaned amount in a timely manner. The fear of an unresponsive or tardy rebate check lingered amongst many New York residents and unfortunately, that fear has come to fruition.

My office has received calls from residents who are part of this new STAR Program, opening their mail and seeing this year’s school property tax bill, yet not having received their rebate check from last year. This was a problem the Assembly had foreseen, which is why we introduced and passed Assembly Bill 5969. This bill does away with the new rebate-style STAR Program and reverses it back to the previous automatic deduction.

While it has been reported that the rebate checks for eligible homeowners should be delivered in the next few weeks, my hope is that Assembly Bill 5969 can be revisited next session, and we can avoid the confusion and burdensome check waiting time in the future.

I want to know what you think about this or any other legislative matter. Please contact me by emailing blankenbushk@nyassembly.gov or by calling my office at 315-493-3909