Some NY counties are set to cut property taxes in January. Which ones?

Good news for New York homeowners: many will likely see cuts in their county taxes or at least no increases on their yearly property-tax bills in January.

Across the state, county governments have set or are finalizing 2024 budgets that in many cases would cut the average tax rates that property owners pay. The savings may be modest, but the trend counts as a win for taxpayers whose bills tend to climb each year and rarely go down.

At least 28 of the 57 counties outside New York City have proposed cutting their tax rates, according to budget figures compiled by the New York State Association of Counties. Many cuts were significant, reaching into double-digit percentages in 13 counties.

Orange County is one of the standouts. Its average tax rate is set to plunge by 16% under the $924 million budget proposed by County Executive Steve Neuhaus and adopted with slight changes this month by county lawmakers.

The new rate of $2.30 per $1,000 of assessed valuation is said to be the county's lowest since the 1960s.

“Lowering taxes remains one of my top priorities, and I will continue to work with the Legislature to develop fiscally responsible budgets,” Neuhaus said in a statement after the budget's approval.

Which other NY counties are cutting tax rates?

Monroe County also could see a large cut. County Executive Adam Bello said last month that his $1.4 billion budget proposal would reduce the county tax rate by more than 12%.

The figures collected by the Association of Counties show a slew of other counties in that ballpark. Onondaga County plans to slash its rate by 15%. Dutchess County proposed a 10.8% cut. Albany and Erie counties are looking at rate decreases of 10.5% and 13.8%, respectively.

Do these tax breaks affect any other taxes on my bill?

Don't expect a windfall.

Those rate cuts apply strictly to county taxes, which are generally the smallest share of property taxes New Yorkers pay. They don't affect town, city or village taxes or the biggest contributor of all: the school tax bills that arrive in September in most districts.

In Orange County's case, a 16% average rate cut across the county's 24 towns and cities amounts to a roughly $40 tax savings for the owners of a $400,000 home, county officials estimated.

A number of other counties plan to cut or make no increase in their tax levies — the total amounts they collect in property taxes — and may also cut taxes on January's bills as a result. But they either don't calculate countywide rates or hadn't done so yet when the Association of Counties collected its figures.

One was Rockland County, where County Executive Ed Day has proposed lowering the tax levy by 2%. County leaders in Westchester, Ulster, Sullivan and Putnam all planned to keep their tax levies the same as they were in 2023.

Westchester budget: Latimer claims 0% tax increase in 2024 budget. That depends on what taxes are included

One caveat about impending tax drops: the rates taxpayers are charged vary from town to town in each county, based on differences in how property values are assessed. The countywide figures that many counties calculate — and that the Association of Counties collected — are theoretical numbers that factor out those assessment differences.

Another caveat: both the levies and rates exclude charges for county-run services that are offered only in parts of a county. Westchester's flat tax levy for 2024, for example, doesn't reflect any changes in charges for about a dozen separate sewer districts it maintains.

Budget boosters: sales tax and federal pandemic relief

Soaring revenue from sales taxes is one reason counties have been able to forego raising property taxes. Orange County, for example, budgeted $397 million in sales tax collections next year, a 32% increase since 2019.

Sales-tax income plunged for counties in 2020 when the pandemic hit and businesses closed, but it roared back afterward and kept surging for many months. Those hauls continue to rise but the pace has slowed to more modest, pre-pandemic levels, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said this month in a quarterly analysis of the trend.

Counties also have been buoyed by huge infusions of pandemic relief that Democrats in Congress and President Joe Biden delivered to state and local governments to avert layoffs and tax increases. That aid came through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in 2021.

Westchester budget: Latimer claims 0% tax increase in 2024 budget. That depends on what taxes are included

What's the outlook for next year?

County taxes also fell at the start of this year, in part for the same two reasons: federal pandemic funds and booming sales tax collections. Some 43 out of 57 counties cut their rates for 2023, according to the Association of Counties.

Two troubling signs cloud the picture for 2024. One is New York's plan to siphon $625 million in federal funds that counties were getting to help cover Medicaid payments. Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to phase that hit over two years as a concession to county leaders in the state budget enacted in May.

Another worrisome factor is the state's looming budget deficit, which could lead to further funding cuts after Hochul introduces her next spending plan in January. Those warnings, however, got a little less dire in October.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Which NY counties plan to cut property taxes for second in a row?