Cuomo: Make cap permanent
Governor pushing for legislative action in this year’s state budget
Gov. Andrew Cuomo visited the suburbs of Buffalo and Long Island on Thursday to push for a permanent 2 percent property tax cap, which is expected to be a focus in this year’s budget negotiations.
With New York facing an unexpected $2.3 billion budget shortfall, Cuomo contends that middle- and high-income earners are fleeing the state due to the federal rollback of a state and local tax deduction (SALT).
By making New York’s tax cap permanent, and implementing the next phase of the state’s middle class tax cut, “we can say to people, ‘We heard you. We get it. New York is home. We want you to keep it home,’” Cuomo said at a press conference in Cheektowaga.
The state’s roughly $168 billion spending plan is due April 1. Budget negotiations between legislative leaders and the governor typically heat up in March.
Cuomo pushed to enact the state’s property tax cap to address New York’s record-high property taxes in 2011, and it went into effect the following year.
Local governments can’t exceed the cap unless 60 percent of a municipal board’s members approve the decision. The current cap expires next year, but
it is tied to the state’s rent regulations, which expire in June.
Cuomo is pushing a long-term, stand-alone bill, which is likely to be a sticking point during this year’s budget talks.
The legislation overwhelmingly passed the Senate last month, but there is no matching bill in the Assembly. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-bronx, has said he “will discuss it” with conference members.
A large portion of property taxes are directed toward school districts. Teachers’ unions oppose making the legislation
permanent, arguing that it is too restrictive.
“The tax cap will continue to impede local school districts’ ability to raise revenue, while
school districts grapple with greater, more intense student needs and increased mandatory costs,” New York State United Teachers President Andy
Pallotta said in a recent radio interview.
Between 2012 and 2018, local property tax growth has averaged 1.9 percent, compared to 5.3 percent average growth from 2000 to 2010, and it has produced $24.4 billion in taxpayer savings statewide, according to data from by the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
“Every New Yorker pays a lower tax rate today than the day I took office,” Cuomo said at Thursday’s event.
Cuomo’s office on Thursday unveiled a digital tax calculator to showcase estimates of how much taxpayers have saved under the property tax cap and will continue to save over the next 10 years.