At 01:13 AM 9/1/2008 -0400, you wrote, in part: >What kind of transitions do you >imagine for yourself in terms of housing and how that relates to your >other needs? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Gay--My thoughts can be condensed into two words: tax relief. The outrageous property and school taxes that older New Yorkers pay is having a severely negative impact on the lives of many of us, not just in the area of housing, but in all areas of our lives. If you can't pay your taxes you will lose your house. The Star program and reverse mortgages, etc., aside, there is very little being done to help seniors with their tax burden. We really need a Proposition 13 here in New York State. The governor's plan to not let property taxes go up more than 4 percent per year (or whatever it is) is ludicrous. We need property taxes to go down by 4 percent per year for about 10 years an a row. I would much rather have few governmental services and much lower taxes. This would really help my housing situation a lot, and I'm sure that of millions of other seniors in New York, more than any anything else. I would use some of the money not spent on taxes for winterization, alternative heating and hot water and other "green" improvements that are not within my grasp currently. Tom ****************************************** Tom Shelley 118 E. Court St. Ithaca, NY 14850 607 342-0864 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Compost Educator and General Sustainability Geek _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
