By Michael V. Cusenza
The City Department of Sanitation will be reimbursing homeowners who are eligible and enrolled in the School Tax Relief program on their property taxes for the purchase or rebate of the official NYC trash bin, City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) told her constituents on Monday.
“We have learned that the administration will be sending out $55 checks to all STAR-eligible 1- and 2-family homes. These are meant to both reimburse those who already purchased a can, or pay for those who have not yet,” Ariola wrote on Twitter. The Adams administration will be making an announcement next week regarding to the reimbursement, the councilwoman said.
The STAR program offers property tax relief to eligible New York State homeowners. According to the State Department of Taxation and Finance, if you are eligible and enrolled in the STAR program, you’ll receive your benefit each year in one of two ways:
- STAR credit: If you are registered for the STAR credit, the Tax Department will issue your STAR benefit via check or direct deposit. You can use your STAR benefit to pay your school taxes. You can receive the STAR credit if you own your home and it’s your primary residence and the combined income of the owners and the owners’ spouses is $500,000 or less.
- STAR exemption: a reduction on your school tax bill. If you’ve been receiving the STAR exemption since 2015, you can continue to receive it for the same primary residence. As long as you remain eligible, you’ll see a reduction on your school tax bill for the amount of your STAR exemption. Note: The STAR exemption is no longer available to new homeowners.
Mayor Eric Adams last summer unveiled the first-ever official NYC Bin outside Gracie Mansion—“relegating New York City’s once-omnipresent mountains of black trash bags to the dust bin of history.” According to the City, the bin is the cheapest of its quality available; similarly durable bins with wheels and a secure, latching lid are sold in retail stores for almost three times the price. These savings were achieved through an innovative contracting mechanism in which one vendor is held to a low price in exchange for exclusivity.
“Today, we are tossing even more black bags into the dustbin of history and taking the next step forward in our ‘Trash Revolution,’” Adams said last July. “The first-ever, official NYC Bin is high-quality, affordable, and will build on our efforts containerizing more than 70 percent of the city’s trash to protect our most valuable and limited resource—our public space.”
Then-DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch added, “Many property owners already use bins for their trash—and pay over $100 retail in order to keep the streets clean. Well, we’ve got great news: at the same time that we’re moving to require containerization of trash for all buildings with one to nine residential units, we’re unveiling the official ‘NYC Bin’—beautiful, durable, and less than $50 for the most common size.”
