Dave Backer testifies in support of tax for school funding and child care

Hi, Council.

My name is Dave Backer.

I'm a parent of a six-year-old who's going to first grade at PS20 in Brooklyn, and a nine-month-old who I'm hoping will go to 2K after that.

I'm also a co-op owner, and I was excited about the rollout of this surcharge.

I didn't feel fear.

I didn't feel nervousness.

I didn't feel any panic.

At all.

In fact, I was excited about it, and I was excited about it for a lot of the reasons that the last speaker just said.

I happen to be a professor of school finance as well, and I know that the real problem

here is not necessarily the rollout, but the way that the property tax system is structured and the way in which our kids'schooling and child care is all reliant upon it.

This real problem, 43% of the money that goes to our kids'schools and child care comes from revenues brought in from property.

Now, we have a trillion dollars of market value in this city that we could tax, but we're only at about a fifth of it in what we actually assess.

We're falling short there.

Single family homeowners, as the last speaker just mentioned, actually already pay 2.4 times less in their effective tax rate than multifamily dwellers.

So my partner and I actually moved out of New York City.

We went to a more affordable city.

We had our daughter, and when we heard that pre-K was...

coming out, we were like, wow.

We looked at the numbers, and it turned out we could save $60,000 a year by moving back to New York City.

So we moved back.

We came back.

And we want that for everybody in this city, and we want to keep building on it.

I don't know.

I think the wealthy homeowners here doth protest a little too much.

And I really hope that this debate, quote unquote, actually doesn't get in the way of much needed revenue in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.