Taxes Up Despite Teacher Layoffs - The pressure on homeowners to pay these taxes is enormous.

July 7, 2011 - PRLog -- Like 55 percent of voters in Levittown, Louise Cassano voted for the school spending plan only after the district rolled out a budget with an increase of about 3 percent.

But Cassano, like so many residents here and throughout Long Island, said she could barely absorb the hike, as little as it is. She said taxes are choking homeowners' abilities to make ends meet.

"The pressure on homeowners to pay these taxes is enormous, evidenced by the number of homes for sale, foreclosures and abandoned properties," Cassano said. "Homeownership, what was the American dream for several generations, is becoming a dream of the past."

Cassano has lived in Levittown since 1964, when it was only about two decades in to being America's first suburb. Back then, young families poured into the Nassau County location to make a new start outside the city. Now, she said, younger Levittown residents are getting out.

"With a decline in young population, businesses close, tax revenues go down, services decline and communities become stagnant," Cassano said. "For those of us who are able to keep our homes, the value of what was thought to be our primary asset, will deteriorate."

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