BUFFALO, N.Y. — Our City Action Buffalo found that "payments by wealthy homeowners have significantly decreased" and "real estate developers receive significant tax breaks from the city."
Amber Powers is a board member with Our City Action Buffalo.
"What our report finds is that between 2018-2023, the city's wealthiest residents actually paid less in property taxes, while almost every other bracket of property taxes has gone up in that time," Powers said. "As our city reaches a point where our financial solvency is at risk, we have a very large budget gap that needs to be closed.
"It is very important that our elected leaders. Examine why the wealthiest residents and developers in the city have gotten away with paying less than their fair share of taxes, and how are we going to fix that going forward."
The group recommends a progressive property tax structure.
Fillmore District councilman Mitch Nowakowski said "we're going to start really facing tough, turbulent times next year when we start seeing cash flow shore up and we're not going to see the cash flow that we have to pay its bills."
Added Powers: "For too long, the Brown administration and the Common Council have put up put off raising the property tax rates, and now they're trying to play a game of catch up by increasing it all at once instead of incrementally."
When asked if wealthy homeowners are paying less than they should, Nowakowski said "everyone pays the same tax rate, so if your home is worth more and assessed more, you pay higher taxes for your own on your home."
He added "the city was not reassessed for almost 20 years, so folks were not adequately paying their fair share in taxes. So reassessment actually realigns those numbers so that it's distributed equally on who pays how much in city taxes a year."
In July, the Buffalo Common Council will hold public hearings on reassessment to inform residents about the process.