New Yorkers pay some of the highest taxes in the nation, but an online database is shedding new light on this hot button issue just in time for next week's school budget votes. Our Solomon Syed explains how you can use it and what troubling numbers are just a click away.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

NEW YORK STATE -- It's the new tax tool that could have New Yorkers seeing red.

"It's shocking, it's a lot of money," says Empire Center director Tim Hoefer, who says the numbers don't lie in the policy group's new tax calculator.

The online database lets you look up tax rates in your town and compare it to regions across the state and some of the numbers aren't pretty.

"Out west and up north, you're looking at areas that have very low property values based on a really high effective tax rate," said Hoefer.

While rural areas pay higher property taxes, wealthier resort communities pay less, information the public may take to the polls when school districts vote on their budgets this coming Tuesday.

"I can see where some might say 'My house isn't worth anything anymore and I'm still paying these high taxes,' I get that, but that's based on an assessed value, not anything the schools are doing," said New York State School Boards Association Executive Director Tim Kremer.

He reiterated that schools don't control property tax rates, they only affect how much of the town's tax revenue actually gets funneled to education.

As the debate over a property tax cap rages, some say the focus, instead, needs to be on decreasing state mandates.

"What's driving the root cause of property taxes?" asked New York State Association of Counties executive director Stephen Acquario. "All the arrows in this property tax situation point to Albany."

In the meantime, the database also lets you see how your money's being spent on some of those mandates, like schools, health care and transportation.

There's plenty of eye-opening numbers in the Capital Region, across the North Country and out west. If you want to get a look for yourself, just visit www.seethroughny.net