Municipal groups come out against Cuomo’s freeze proposal
Casey Seiler, Capitol bureau chief
The state organizations that represent mayors, counties, towns and school boards crossed a line on Tuesday from expressing concerns about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s property tax freeze proposal to opposing it as “flawed.”
Cuomo’s plan — estimated to cost the state $1.4 billion over the next two fiscal years — would provide homeowners with an income tax rebate check for the amount of increase in their property tax bill if a taxing entity manages to keep its annual tax increase within the state’s current tax cap (2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower). In the second year of the freeze, the taxing entity would have to stay within the cap and come up with a plan to achieve structural savings. For the ensuring three years, that plan would have to achieve annual reductions in the size of the tax levy.
Tim Kremer of the state School Boards Association said the drawbacks of Cuomo’s plan include its complexity and potential administrative costs, as well as the fact that current consolidation efforts won’t count in a locality’s favor — that is, the plan could have the unintended consequence of incentivizing localities to hold off on savings initiatives until it’s most beneficial to them under Cuomo’s multi-year timeline.
“We believe it ignores crediting those taxpayers who live in communities that, quite honestly, have already exhausted most of their cost-containment options,” Kremer said, warning of “drastic budget cuts” that could contribute to higher unemployment.
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/207557/municipal-groups-come-out-against-cuomos-freeze-proposal/