Governor Holds Legislators Feet to Fire Concerning Taxes

This article is from The Legislative Gazette written by MARIA BRANDECKER - Legislative Gazette Staff Writer

Mon, Jun 23, 2008

Despite the results of a recent Siena poll that shows 74 percent of New Yorkers support Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposal for a property tax cap, leaders remain divided on the issue as the legislative session draws to a close with no real agreement on how to reign in property taxes.

But Paterson won’t let lawmakers get off that easy. The governor, at a press conference last Tuesday, said he would consider calling the Legislature back into session either this summer or fall if necessary and force them to take a stance on the issue during an election year.

“What I want to do is discuss with the leaders how serious this problem is and bring people back to Albany before the election since it’s an election year,” Paterson said.

“Let’s sit here for a few days during the summer or early fall and come up with a solution and let’s not do it because some mean governor made us come back here, let’s do it because it’s right.”

The governor was asked if he would follow in former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s footsteps by visiting the districts of lawmakers who do not agree with him. Paterson said he does not want property tax relief to turn into a personal issue by singling legislators out and going into their districts. “What I am doing is seeing how publicly [legislators] are on the issue,” Paterson said. “Once you go into people’s districts, it’s back and forth and who said what about who, and that distracts us from the actual issue.”

Paterson, who introduced program bill 62 immediately following the release of a report by the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief, is calling for an annual cap of 4 percent, or 120 percent of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, on the school property tax levy.

The cap proposal suggested by the commission would limit the amount that the total property tax levy can increase from year to year and reconfigure the school budget voting process.

The program bill, which generally mirrors one of the main recommendations in the commission’s report, would require voter approval of any tax levy exceeding the cap and would apply to all school districts outside of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers.

“We are going to try as hard as we can to persuade those in Albany that this is the correct way,” Paterson said. “And one part of the dysfunction of Albany that we’re going to clear up is I don’t want to hear anyone say that any idea is dead on arrival in Albany.”

Paterson said he adjusted his program bill after hearing suggestions from opponents of a cap. In particular, Paterson said he was persuaded to include in his plan that all residents have the right to vote every year on their school budgets, even if the board of education proposes a levy increase of less than 4 percent.“

Time to display flexibility, time to display an ability to hear what other people are thinking, even if they disagree, and listening is what I’m doing,” Paterson said.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R,C,I-Brunswick, said the Senate majority is open to any alternatives that freeze property taxes or reduce them. Bill S.8522, sponsored by the majority leader, would implement “New York STOP Taxing Our Property” (NY-STOP) that would allow voters in a school district to publicly vote on whether school property taxes would be phased out over five years and be replaced with additional state funding. The bill was passed in the Senate last Wednesday and, as of press time, was in the Assembly’s Education Committee.

Under Bruno’s plan, school districts that enter into the optional system would be required to reduce residential real property taxes on homes by 20 percent annually until the tax is eliminated. The legislation gives voters in a school district the option of implementing a local tax cap by a petition and voting process. According to the Senate majority, this would allow localities to have the flexibility they need to address unique district-by-district challenges.

Over the next five years this bill would cost the state $11.7 billion, according to Bruno, who said funding for the initiative would come from existing revenue in the state budget. “We have increased money for education over the past years … if it’s a priority, we will prioritize our money.” Bruno said.

Even though the Senate passed this legislation last year, Bruno said the issue is even more relevant this year because property taxes are increasingly more oppressive.

“If you want to cap something, cap the escalating size of the budget,” Bruno said. In early March, the Senate passed legislation that would prohibit the governor from submitting a budget that would increase spending more than either 4 percent of the previous year’s budget or 120 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is less.

By the end of last week, Bruno’s spokesperson Scott Rief said the Senate majority leader is open to other alternatives that would reduce property taxes and could be open to a cap depending on what the legislation looks like.

Taking a stance apart from the governor’s tax cap and Bruno’s tax cut, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D,WF-Manhattan, remains concerned about how a cap would affect the quality of education in public schools. Critics of a cap argue a loss of revenue to school districts would greatly impact the amount of resources available to students in a school district, and as a result the quality of education would suffer.

“The commission talked about an under-commitment of state resources to shoulder in the classroom compared to other states,” Silver said. “This is one of the key concerns people who are not traditionally comfortable, like myself, can be comfortable with a tax cap if I knew those resources were getting to the classroom so that children will have the ability to learn and have the resources to learn with them.”

In addition, Silver pointed out the rising costs of heating school buildings and school transportation systems. “What is that solution in terms of resources?” Silver said. “We tell school districts only have school three days a week or bus children three days a week to their schools or do we find a state commitment?”

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R,C,I-Schenectady, said he supports a property tax cap and supports bill A.8775a, which would implement the New York State Property Taxpayer Protection Act. The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Michael J. Fitzpatrick, R,C-Smithtown, would limit the amount school district tax levies could increase each year. According to the bill, taxes levied for school districts would not exceed the amount of taxes levied for the prior school year by 4 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

Selvena Brooks, downstate press secretary for Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, D,WF-St. Albans, said the Senate minority leader supports the governor’s proposed property tax cap but thinks the cap should be set at 2 percent.

Brooks said Smith would be willing to go back into session over the summer to discuss the property tax issue at the governor’s request.

“We feel that it’s driving people out of the state, that even in an election year people are voting with their feet,” Paterson said, referring to property taxes in the state. “We’re loosing human capital, we’re loosing our sense of communities.”