Mayor Sharon Owens has expressed early interest in the bill, which could allow Syracuse to opt into a pilot program to change how property is taxed.
Mayor Sharon Owens believes a bill proposed in the state legislature that would alter how property is taxed could also spur development in Syracuse at a critical time.
The Land Value Tax bill, sponsored by state Sen. Rachel May, would create a pilot program to shift the way land is assessed and taxed. The legislation would allow cities to tax the value of land itself rather than the structures built on the land, replacing a traditional property tax.
Proponents of the policy say it would incentivize development, discourage speculative land hoarding, generate tax savings for residential property owners and ensure that any publicly generated increase in land values benefits the broader community.
They argue a land value tax could also reduce the tax burden for lower-income residential property owners while incentivizing developers to develop their land or sell it.
According to a 2025 analysis of the land value tax model in Syracuse, advocates for the policy calculate that a shift in taxation made possible by May’s bill would bring in a reduction in property taxes to almost every residential neighborhood in the city.
Ed: Read the rest here: https://centralcurrent.org/how-a-state-bill-with-support-from-sen-rachel-may-could-reshape-property-taxes-in-syracuse-and-spur-development/