Barre has highest town tax rate in one of highest-taxed counties in one of highest-taxed states

Editor:

One day while searching on the internet for one thing, I got distracted by a news story about something. That happens a lot. One minute I’m looking for something specific and another minute I’m diving in to find information on something else.

The internet is full of information, right? Some information is useful, some not, and some makes you scratch your head. Anyway, I’m getting distracted again.

While I was being distracted that time, I did find some interesting data on taxes. I’ll call them “Tax Facts.” I mean, I got this information from the internet so they must be facts.  Did you know that Orleans County made the top ten list? Yes! Awesome! Not.

We made the top ten for highest tax rates in our state. Out of the 57 counties in New York for 2021, according to New York State Comptroller, Orleans comes in at the 8th highest rate at $9.63 per $1,000 of assessed property. Right behind is Genesee at $9.80 and two ahead of Monroe which is $8.87.

Now, let’s take a look at the towns within our county. This information is available on the Orleans County website. I am only looking at the town tax rates here. We have the town of Barre as the clear winner, with the highest tax rate of $8.87. Barre’s tax rate is about 110% higher than the average of all the rest of the towns in Orleans County. 110%!

And…as you may already know, New York is consistently one of the highest taxed, if not the highest taxed states in the country.

So as a review we have: New York, the highest or close to the highest taxed state, Orleans County one of the highest in the state, and Barre the highest in the county.

This isn’t really a competition that I want to be placing at the top in. How about you?

Kelly Dudley

Barre