Tax caps up on Aug. 8 (Updated)

The Senate Republicans just announced their plans to come back on Aug. 8 to pass a tax cap.

Here’s the announcement from the Senate:

Senate  Majority  Leader  Dean G. Skelos today announced that the New York  State  Senate  will  convene  a  special session in Albany on Friday, August  8, 2008 at 11 a.m. The special session will be focused primarily on enacting  the  Governor’s  property  tax  cap  proposal  and  passing other legislation  to  reduce costs for schools and ensure adequate resources for students.

  1. Chris Andrus says:


    This isn’t really a “cap” – it’s a rubber stamp, that, if approved, would totally remove taxpayer vote on each school budget, provided the budget doesn’t INCREASE any more than 4% each year {CPTR Preliminary Report, page 9, Part III Recommendations states: “School districts that do not exceed the cap would no longer be required to submit their budgets for an annual vote.”} I know that my pay doesn’t increase 4% each year, so what’s the benefit to the working taxpayer?

    Kudos to Elliot Spitzer for getting the tax reform ball rolling, Governor Paterson for keeping the commission active, and Sheldon Silver and Former Senate Leader Joseph Bruno for opposing the tax cap. Dean Skelos wants the political “look, we did something” posture, but he really does not understand that this is not a cure for high property taxes. The commission’s work has been thorough, although their proposals WILL NOT help taxpayers.

    A property tax “circuit breaker” will not help either, as it is really nothing more than the institution of a local income tax – it would try to tie your income to your assessed property value (which is nothing more than one person’s OPINION of what they’d pay for your property). This is more of what we do NOT need in New York State.

    Under the current UNFAIR property tax system, an assessor, who most likely is some sort of real estate professional, provides a guess, or opinion of what your home is worth, and thus what you will pay in taxes, as if that actually means anything about your ability to pay. A family of 5 living in their home that the assessor guesses is worth $50,000 pays twice as much as the family of 5 that lives in the home that the assessor guesses is worth $25,000. Both families use the same roads, the same schools, the same government services, but pay different tax just because of one person’s opinion. This is an abhorrent system that really must go away for good!

    What if we instituted a tax system where you paid taxes based on what you consume in taxable goods? Would that tax the rich (who would consume more and pricier goods) more than the poor? YES! Would you be worried about what the assessor assumes your home to be worth? NO! Would the burden of proving the actual true value of your home fall upon you, the overworked taxpayer? The answer is no, it would be a change for all New Yorkers, but could be easily and fairly administered using existing sales tax collection methods.

    In my utopian New York State, the state taxpayers would vote on the tax rate, and the county governments would be paid from sales tax revenues, state fees and fines, etc.., There would be a minimum funding requirement based on population for each county, then the different government entities (schools, police, fire, courts, etc..) would compete against each other, population-wise, politically and via a grading system for remaining funds.

    Even better, perhaps we could consolidate the school districts AND the townships AND maybe even some of the smaller cities to the county level, thereby saving billions (trillions?) in shared service costs.

  2. 11thWardDem says:

    This is a game of political chicken that the Senate Republicans are playing with the Assembly Democrats (mainly the leadership). A game that neither can win because they are beholden to those who benefit from your skyrocketing taxes.

    I would love for Shelly to pass this tax cap, and stop letting the Senate Rethugs paint his fellow colleagues into a corner.

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