A Tale of Two Suburbs Case Study


 

Publication Date: March 2007

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Type: Report

Coverage: New York

Abstract:

According to the Long Island Index 84% of Long Islanders believe that high taxes are an “extremely” or “very serious” problem and a near majority (45%) cite it as the major local problem. With an eye to finding out how other regions address the issue of local taxes, the Long Island Index compared Long Island to several peer suburban regions and found one stood out in stark contrast to ours. Northern Virginia (including Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Fairfax City and the city of Falls Church) has significantly lower per capita property taxes than Long Island and a dramatically different governance model with 17 governmental entities delivering the full range of services on a county-wide basis compared to Long Island’s 439 governmental entities delivering similar services.