The Enterprise opinion pages are an open forum for our community. We encourage readers to express their thoughts about issues that appear in this newspaper or affect the community. Letters should be brief (with an outside limit of 1,000 words) and must include the writer's address, name, and phone number for verification. The editor may reject letters that have been printed elsewhere. Letters concerning elections will be cut off one issue before the election at the editor's discretion. No unsigned letters will be published. The deadline for letters is Tuesday at noon.
To the Editor:
Guilderland taxpayers should take a close look at their town property tax bill that arrived this month. Your bill includes a 111-percent increase in the town’s pension tax, a tax our town board quietly created in 2012.
The long-term ramifications of this new tax are significant. The state’s 2-percent cap on property tax [levies] exempts pensions from the cap, which creates this gaping loophole in the law.
Anne Hayden’s Sept. 27, 2012 Enterprise headline claimed “No tax Hike for Guilderland,” but our taxes have gone up, again.
Though pension costs have certainly risen, not being clear about higher taxes is not what most residents would consider transparency.
Mark Ryan
Guilderland
Editor’s note: The story you mention, available online at www.AltamontEnterprise.com under Archives “Back Issues,” states: “Retirement contributions have increased roughly $400,000 from 2012 to 2013 and are projected to increase by another $450,000 in 2014.”