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All of St. Lawrence County's state Senators, Assemblymen vote for state property tax cap

Posted 6/27/11

All four of the state legislators representing St. Lawrence County voted for the property tax cap last week. And, they say mandate relief measures put in place could offset some of the deficiencies …

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All of St. Lawrence County's state Senators, Assemblymen vote for state property tax cap

Posted

All four of the state legislators representing St. Lawrence County voted for the property tax cap last week.

And, they say mandate relief measures put in place could offset some of the deficiencies in the property tax cap idea.

The bill containing the cap will limit school and local government property tax annual increases to less than two percent of the previous year’s levy or the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is lower, and prohibits local governments and schools from exceeding the cap without a 60 percent vote to override. The tax cap will take effect in 2012 for the school-budget year 2012-13 and will expire in 2017.

Sen. Joseph Griffo of the 47th District, which includes eastern St. Lawrence County, said, “This tax levy cap would shift the focus from total spending to the actual property taxes levied to support school district and local government expenses.”

48th District Sen. Sen. Patty Ritchie said that “By enacting a tax cap, New York will join a host of states that long ago realized that, in order to rebuild their private sector economies and create jobs, it is essential to get spending and taxes under control.”

Addie Russell, Democrat from the 118th “River” District, said the tax cap “takes into account a number of factors important to many communities by allowing local governments and school districts to adjust the tax levy upward if there is a growth in the property tax base and exempting certain court orders and judgments arising out of litigation. It also provides for an exemption if pension contributions exceed 2 percent.”

Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush, a Republican from the 122nd “Foothills District.” said, “We made significant progress in this area passing a historic two percent cap. However, without true protections from Albany’s mandates, our schools and local governments may deteriorate to the point of closure.”

Mandate relief is included, with $127 million in savings to local governments statewide, in addition to the creation of a Mandate Relief Council to identify and work to repeal unsound, unduly burdensome laws and regulations.

“This bill provides a tax cap that will place even more pressure to keep property tax increases down. It is just as important, maybe even more important, to provide relief to local governments and school districts from the policies that have been driving their expenses,” Russell said.

Along with addressing a variety of other mandates, the package will allow piggybacking on information technology (IT) equipment and service contracts with federal government contracts. It also permits school districts with less than 1,000 students to share superintendents and allows school districts to provide regional transportation services with BOCES, reforms that Assemblywoman Russellsaid she has been pushing.

“Piggybacking is a simple concept that will save taxpayer dollars by allowing local governments to take advantage of better prices on equipment and services,” Russell said.

The Executive Director of the New York State School Boards Association, Timothy Kremer, said that the tax cap measure adds to the negative side of a mixed bag for the legislature as far as schools are concerned.

He cited some mandate-relief items and the fact that no new mandates were passed by the Legislature this year, which he sees as a good thing, but the imposition of the tax cap, in addition to “next year, the loss of federal education funds, depletion of reserve funds, and cap on local revenue will prove challenging to school districts. Lawmakers will need to address the dramatic discrepancy in the impact of the tax cap.”