Similar to many property tax relief programs, New York State's School Tax Relief (STAR) program has been shown to exacerbate school resource inequities across urban, suburban, and rural schools. STAR's inherent conflict with the wealth equalization policies of New York State's school finance system are highlighted in a manner that effectively penalizes large, urban school districts by not adjusting for factors likely to contribute to high property taxation. As a policy solution, this article presents results of a simulation that distributes property tax relief using an econometrically based cost index. The results substantially favor high-need urban and rural school districts.
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