84% Tax Increase For This City In New York State

With 2024 coming to a close, several towns and cities around the State of New York are finalizing their budgets for 2025. While it's not uncommon to see increases, an 84% increase would catch anyone's eye. That's a huge tax hike, and it's coming to this city in New York State.

Property Taxes in New York State

The taxes we're talking about here are property taxes, and in New York, they are higher than most states, though not necessarily as high as most would think. According to Yahoo Finance, New York ranks 13th in the nation for property taxes. High, but not the highest, which belongs to New Jersey.

Property taxes help pay for things like schools, police, roads, fire and EMS service, and things that most people would consider necessary for their community. They go up when a county, city, town, or state has a budget deficit, and that's precisely what is happening in this city.

84% Tax Increase For This City In New York State

Dunkirk, New York, located on Lake Erie in Western New York, approved an 84% property tax increase for 2025.

What that means is residents will now pay almost $34 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Zillow claims the average property value in Dunkirk is a little more than $124,000, which means the average home will have around $4,200 of property taxes per year at the new rate. Previously, residents would be paying, on average, less than $1,000 a year in property taxes.

That's a significant increase that will no doubt hurt people's budgets in 2025.

The City of Dunkirk says they are trying to do everything they can to continue providing services and helping people. They may even merge police departments with the neighboring Village of Fredonia. Regardless, the people living in Dunkirk may be looking at some difficult times financially.