The Business Council is offering a new seminar series designed to help businesses understand property-tax assessments and how they can be challenged to reduce those taxes.

The one-day seminars will be offered June 13, and 19 in Syracuse, and Saratoga Springs, respectively.

The seminar will help managers understand how real-estate assessments are determined and how employers can make informed decisions on steps that might lead to reductions in those taxes.

The seminar will include case studies to help managers avoid missteps that have undermined some companies' efforts to reduce property taxes.

Specific topics to be discussed during the seminar include:

• The assessment process and the definition of "fair market value."
• Annual events that affect a taxpayer's assessment.
• How to read a tax bill.
• The costs and benefits of "special districts."
• How to calculate county, town, and school tax rates.
• The information a tax assessor needs and expects to have, and how a taxpayer can ensure that it is updated.
• How equalization rates affect tax rates and assessments, and how to learn your community's latest equalization rate.
• How environmental issues affect property values.
• Understanding exemption under section 485-b of the state's Real Property Tax Law.
• Case studies of efforts to challenge property-tax assessments.
• Using all available information to decide whether to challenge an assessment, to plan a challenge, and to increase its likelihood of success.

Property taxes and competitiveness in New York: New York's property taxes are widely regarded as one of New York's most important competitive disadvantages.

For example, despite historic reductions in state taxes over the last half-dozen years, New York's combined state and local tax burden remains the nation's highest, according to Just the Facts 2001.

"Our local taxes are more out of line with those in other states than are the taxes imposed by Albany," Just the Facts said. "And the biggest single part of our local taxes is the property tax, which totals some $25 billion on businesses and homeowners statewide.

"Property taxes in New York are $580 per capita above those in our neighboring state of Pennsylvania, and are far above those in almost every other state."

Only New Jersey has higher property taxes per capita, and New York's taxes are 56.8 percent above the average of the other states in the top 10, Just the Facts reported.

Just the Facts is a compendium of key economic indicators compiled each year by The Business Council's research affiliate, The Public Policy Institute. To see the complete Just the Facts, visit ppinys.org/reports/jtf/contents.htm. To register for the seminar on property-tax assessments, call 1-800/358-1202.