73% of New Yorkers want a property tax cap? Why hasn’t the Assembly jumped? The Senate is and will be voting on Friday. I can only imagine what the Democrats plan will be. I have heard a little about this circuit breaker idea and it sounds like the alternate budget with schools, in some cases it is a worse budget than the original one proposed.

North Country residents being taxed out of their homes

Capping property taxes has been on the minds of many.

Some groups opposed to the idea claim the issue is dead, though that doesn’t seem to be the case according to news coming out of Albany.

Surveys, in fact, indicate an overwhelming number of New Yorkers support the idea, but locally it depends on who you are talking to.

DIFFERING OPINIONS

“To have a tax cap makes no sense, because right now we get to vote on the school budget,” said Roderick Sherman, president of the Plattsburgh Teachers Association. “It’s the only governmental budget the public votes on every year, and they can either approve or disapprove it.”

“I fully support a cap on these taxes,” said Plattsburgh City Mayor Donald Kasprzak.

Lawmakers are considering legislation to address soaring property taxes as the state struggles to retain young families, seniors and businesses.

New York’s local taxes are the highest in the nation, and outside of New York City, 62 percent of property taxes are school taxes.

Paterson would cap the school property-tax levy at a 4-percent increase, or 120 percent of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less.

A Siena College Poll indicated that 73 percent of New Yorkers want a cap.

New Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos is pushing to see the legislation adopted by the end of August.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has said any property-tax legislation must include the funds schools need to meet education standards.

Various organizations have said they’d support a tax cap if the state covered a percentage of the costs of nondiscretionary items.

Also garnering broke is the idea of a circuit breaker that would cap individual property taxes at a percentage of the homeowner’s income.

“There is no question about the fact that funding education on property taxes on the local level can really hurt some people, such as people on fixed incomes,” Sherman said. “That’s why I think Betty Little’s proposal of a tax circuit breaker makes a lot of sense. There are some folks who vote yes who want schools to get what they need but it may negatively impact them, and that is where a circuit breaker would work.”

Capping property taxes would take away the public’s right to improve schools, he said.

“It is just a case of government stepping in and trying to tell the local people what they can and can’t do with their schools,” Sherman said.

RELIEF NEEDED

Kasprzak understands the varied positions on the issue, but he thinks the government must step in. More—->