A Word From The Publisher

Some Garden City residents will be surprised to learn that over the summer New York State enacted an additional property tax rebate, called the Middle Class STAR over the summer. Under the new law, homeowners earning up to $250,000 will be eligible to receive rebate checks directly from the state.

Starting on September 24th, the New York State Department of Taxation will be mailing out applications for Nassau and Suffolk County homeowners to either fill out or use to apply online. The application will contain a code for the property, and the department will also need the social security numbers of all owners of the property. Financial forms will not be required, as the department will apparently be using the 2005 state tax forms of the filers for income information.

Senior citizens who already receive the Enhanced STAR rebates do not need to apply again. In fact, rebate checks for those people have already been mailed by the state.

Garden City residents who apply for Middle Class STAR can receive rebates starting at $384 if their family income level is $120,000 or below.

Information about the program can be found online at www.tax.state.ny.us/star/2007

Meg Morgan Norris

Publisher