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In-Depth Information
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 “Local
Assessors Fight State Pressure to “Consolidate’”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, April 2008.
The executive and legislative branches of state government
are applying pressure to eliminate local elected assessors, as
a first step toward wiping out the office of town assessors and
absorbing it into each county Office of Real Property Tax Services.
Local elected assessors around New York State have gotten the
picture and are up in arms. Other offices of local government
are also threatened by recommendations of the Commission on Local
Government Efficiency and Competitiveness, established by former
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, with a very receptive legislature.
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- “You’re
Asking for It” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, March 2007)
Local government’s disdain for the public, the
obstruction of development by local officials, and the willingness
of local government to sign away the right of the people to govern
locally, while officials assume more power and receive more money,
make local government vulnerable to consolidation and regional
restructuring.
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- “The
Town Meeting—We Still Need It” By Mark Smith, Supervisor,
Town of Hector, Schuyler County, N.Y. (Originally published in
the American Agriculturist, March 4, 1939, reprinted in
the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Winter 2007)
This historic article, shared by the author’s
son Hollen C. Smith points out that home rule was not lightly
gained and should not be lightly lost. State aid is fraught with
danger to the preservation of local control.
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- “Supreme
Court Denies Tax Exemption on Oneidas’ Reacquired Homelands”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, July 2005)
In the case City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of
New York, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on March 29, 2005,
that the Oneida Indians will have to abide by the laws of New
York State and local government within its reacquired ancestral
lands, because it waited too long to repurchase the lands and
assert sovereignty over them. The Oneidas will have to pay real
estate taxes.
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- “Grants
Have Agendas” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA November
15, 2004
Government grants put never-ending streams of money toward
preservationist objectives that diminish private property rights.
Prime examples are National Heritage Areas, regional planning,
trails, and government land acquisition.
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- “Overlapping
Jurisdictions Requiring Permits in New York State” -
By Carol W. LaGrasse, June 4, 2003
When applying for a local building permit, property owners
are unaware of the multiplicity of local, state, and federal
agencies potentially having jurisdiction. The tentative list
of over 30 agencies in “Overlapping Jurisdictions”
shows the urgent need for a State clearinghouse to provide applicants
with an official list of potentially jurisdictional agencies.
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- “Overlapping
Jurisdictions Hit Home with Couple’s Dream House”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2, 2003)
The Town of Niskayuna failed to warn a young couple about
the Corps of Engineers’ jurisdiction over wetlands.
The State of New York desperately needs a central source for
information about the numerous overlapping permit requiring agencies.
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 “Founding
A New Municipality” - Gary Vegliante, Mayor, Village
of Westhampton Dunes, N.Y.. from Proceedings of the Third
Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (1998)
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