The map above depicts parcels in the city of Albany from which, for various reasons, the city doesn't get property taxes. It's from a slide deck used by Kathy Sheehan during her recent presentation before joint state legislative budget hearing about municipal aid.

That topic has popped up again this week (it never really goes away) because the city's request for an additional $12.5 million from the state -- what the Sheehan admin has tagged as "Capital City Funding" -- was not included in the 30-day budget amendments submitted by the Cuomo admin. That doesn't necessarily mean the money is completely off the table -- the Cuomo admin indicated Friday it could still happen -- but it does cast the fate of the money in doubt. Given given that it represents 7 percent of the current $177 million enacted budget, the city faces making some hard cuts if the money doesn't come through. And on Friday Sheehan urged city residents to call the offices of state legislative leaders to push for the aid.

Sheehan and other city officials have long argued the city deserves more aid from the state for two reasons:

1. The amount of money the city gets from the state's main type of aid to municipalities (AIM) is, on a per capita basis, way lower than what other large cities around the state get. It's not even close. As Sheehan said Friday: "We are not asking for something extra. We are asking for something that gets us a little closer to parity."

2. Large portions of the city -- some 63 percent of the property value -- are tax exempt because of the presence of the state and other institutions that don't have to pay.

Here's a larger view of that map, along with a few quick bits.

Look up

The map is at the top in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.

A few things

Empire State Plaza

One of the features that sticks out in downtown Albany is the Empire State Plaza, of course. It's not taxable, but there's a long running payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) arrangement in the which the state pays the city $15 million a year. (In the city's budget it's the "19A" revenue line.) The state has also been peeling money off the backend of this agreement to pay the city additional money in recent years -- what's known as a "spin-up." The additional $12.5 million the city got from the state last year was in the form of a spin-up.

The Harriman campus

Another state parcel that sticks out is the Harriman State Office Campus uptown. The campus and UAlbany's adjacent campus occupy a huge tract of what would theoretically be very attractive land. The state does not pay the city a PILOT for this land. Last year it tried to sell off a chunk of the Harriman campus with the goal of adding the land back to the city's tax roll -- but there were not takers. (It had a similar lack of success with the parcels -- currently untaxed -- that were gathered on the south side of downtown for the original convention center site.)

AMC/VA/colleges

Another big chunk of the city is taken up the Albany Med/VA hospital/Albany Law/Albany College of Pharmacy/Sage Albany section. A bunch of cities, both here in New York and other states, have been floating ideas in recent years about how to get such large tax-exempt institutions to kick in something. Albany has had some modest success in this regard. An example: Last year Albany Med pledged to pay the city $500k a year as part of a PILOT.

Zzzzzzzzzz

This whole discussion might sound like hopping a train to Snoresville, but the city's budget situation underlies so many issues in the city that affect people who live there and visit there. One of the consequences of having so much tax-exempt land is that property that can be taxed ends up shouldering a disproportionate share of the burden, meaning higher taxes for home owners and businesses. On Friday Sheehan said city's residential property represents roughly 25 percent of the property value in the city, but pays 60 percent of the tax levy. And the city's business properties represent about 13 percent of the property value, but pay 40 percent of the levy.

That makes it harder for the city to compete with other municipalities for residents and development. (And it is a competition -- the city hosts the workplaces for a lot people who don't live there. You can bet it'd love to have chance to compete on a more level playing field for some of those people to become residents.)

Does the city benefit from having the state and these institutions? Sure. They provide jobs and economic activity. But it also incurs costs and complications for hosting them. The question is to what degree the city should be compensated for that.

Earlier

+ Does Albany get a fair share of state aid?

+ Comparing the latest batch of Capital Region property tax rates