On Wednesday, my Assembly colleagues and I tackled an issue that has negatively impacted thousands of New Yorkers across the state. Unfortunately, over the last year, many new homeowners have experienced disappointment and frustration with the state’s STAR Program. This week, we addressed this failure of the STAR Program and passed Assembly Bill 5969.

Last year, the governor approved a plan to change the state’s STAR Program from an automatic deduction on property tax bills to a rebate-style system for new home owners. For homes purchased prior to 2015, homeowners see a reduction on their property tax bills, while new homeowners are placed under the revamped STAR Program. Those who purchased their homes prior to last year are grandfathered in and had no change to their STAR benefit. Owners of new homes were forced to pay a full property tax bill up front, and receive the same STAR savings in the form of a check.

This change created both confusion and inconvenienced thousands of new homeowners across the state. The Department of Taxation and Finance, which was tasked with distributing these checks to new homeowners, found it was unable to distribute these checks in a timely manner, and there are still new homeowners who have yet to receive the money they are owed. This inefficiency is unacceptable. The government must be able to give taxpayers the money they are owed just as effectively as they expect taxpayers to give the government the money it is owed. Because of this failure, my colleagues and I revisited the STAR Program 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. This will not only save homeowners in this state money, but will take the confusion and burdensome check waiting time out of the equation. It was a necessary change that needed to be addressed as quickly as possible, and I look forward to swift action being taken by the Senate and Governor.

If you have any questions regarding the STAR Program or any other legislative matter, please contact me by emailing blankenbushk@nyassembly.gov or by calling my office at 315-493-3909.