A program designed to reduce or limit property taxes for low-income residents could happen in the city of Buffalo.
In the Buffalo Common Council's Finance Committee meeting, Tuesday, Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope explained the initiative - known as a property tax circuit breaker - would help offset future property tax increases for those whose tax liabilities take a certain percentage of what they earn.
"I want to make sure that we protect people so they are not spending everything they have and trying to decide if, I, like, eat this week or pay my taxes, and that's where people end up losing their homes - generational homes - and I want to protect them from that," Halton-Pope said.
Since property taxes are based on assessed value, circuit breakers can protect low-income, long-time homeowners whose properties have significantly increased in value since they were purchased.
Halton-Pope pointed to the city's upcoming 8% property tax increase as the motivation for the initiative, and said future tax hikes are likely.
"We know we're gonna have to go up, maybe not right away, but at some point we're gonna be back in this position again," she said.
The Buffalo Common Council adopted a resolution to establish the program as part of their budget amendments last week, and tasks the council's Finance Committee to evaluate similar models in other jurisdictions and make recommendations for a pilot program within 60 days.
But the program is contingent on state support according to Halton-Pope. With less than two weeks until the end of state session, the initiative will not be considered this fiscal year.
As of 2023, 29 states and D.C. offer some sort of property tax circuit breaker, and are designed "to intervene to ensure that property taxes do not swallow up an unreasonable portion of qualifying households’ family budgets," according to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy.
Property values have skyrocketed in the U.S. in recent years, rising almost 27 percent faster than inflation since 2020, which yields higher property taxes in jurisdictions that fail to adjust rates downward, according to the Tax Foundation.
