The real property tax dates back as early as 1654 to the Dutch New York Colony. The history of the laws relating to the real property tax in New York State is, for the most part, a history of efforts of New Yorkers to achieve equality in the apportionment of property tax levies among property owners.

Property tax laws enacted since the early colonial period mainly addressed problems of equalization, although many related to refinements in collection and enforcement procedures and to the exemption of certain types of property from the tax.

The dominant feature of most of the property tax laws enacted during the colonial and early state periods was the determination by the legislative body of a quota of taxes to be collected from each county. County boards of supervisors would then determine quotas for the towns and wards within their boundaries. The assessors of the towns and wards were required to assess property at “whatsoever have been deemed the worth or value thereof.”

The property tax laws in force during the period of 1799 to 1813 mandated that local assessors use the valuation of real property made by the federal assessors pursuant to an act of Congress.

In 1798, Congress enacted legislation to raise a direct tax upon property throughout the United States. The federal act established an organization for the administration of this law. New York State was divided into nine divisions, each of which was headed by a commissioner. Divisions were divided into districts, and districts were further subdivided into subdivisions. The boundaries of the districts were mainly coterminous with the boundaries of counties; and those of the subdivisions coterminous with those of towns and wards.

The federal commissioners were empowered to equalize assessments among assessment districts within their respective divisions, and among subdivisions within districts. The equalization process was accomplished by adding or deducting from the valuations, “such a rate per centum as shall appear just and equitable,” provided that the relative valuations within the same unit (district or subdivision) were not changed. The equalized valuations were then set down opposite each individual property or parcel on the assessment roll, so that the completed assessment roll reflected the equalized valuations of the properties contained therein, rather than the assessed valuations.

In making valuations, the act directed federal assessors to be guided by the actual sales prices of recent real estate transfers.

The New York State laws of this period not only mandated the use of the federal valuations, but also directed that in cases where real property had not been assessed by the federal assessors for some reason or other, the New York assessors should ascertain “the true value thereof, agreeably to the principles prescribed by the act of Congress.”

A State act of 1799 made provision for county commissioners of taxes who were required to “equalize the tax upon the real estates within this State, and make the valuation of the real estates in their respective counties as near as may be equal to the valuation of the houses and lands therein made under the authority of the United States.”

Thus, as early as 1799, the Legislature recognized the necessity for some form of equalization procedure to overcome the practice by some assessors of underassessing real property in their tax districts in an effort to gain a tax advantage over other tax districts.

The federal government levied a direct tax on property in 1798, and then not again until 1813, when Congress reduced the federal direct tax.

Also in 1813, New York’s Legislature enacted a law establishing a procedure for the assessment of property and empowered county boards of supervisors to equalize assessment rolls of towns within their respective counties by adding to or deducting from the aggregate valuations in any town, “such a per centum as may, in their opinion, be necessary to produce a just relation between all the valuations of real estate in the county.”

The 1813 act was the first codification and revision of the general laws relating to the assessment and taxation of real property. In addition to providing for the equalization of assessment rolls by counties, the act expressly provided for a “grievance day” at which a taxpayer could complain and be heard by the assessors on his assessment. This act also provided that real property be assessed “at the value they would appraise such estate in payment of a bona fide debt due from a solvent debtor.”

In 1828 a second codification of the laws relating to the assessment and taxation of real property was passed, introducing into the law for the first time the term “full value.”

From 1827 to 1842, the state did not levy a property tax, depending, to a large extent, on revenues from the Erie Canal. Thereafter, marking a refrain familiar to today, the increasing burden of the state property tax sharpened the criticisms and complaints of taxpayers as to the inequalities resultant from the apportionment of the tax on the basis of assessed valuation, and consequently the administration of the tax became more and more difficult.