Tax Cap is in Trouble
June 4, 2008
NY Post
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson’s bid to cap soaring property taxes was in doubt yesterday as powerful labor unions lined up against it and key lawmakers offered only tepid support.
Paterson wants to introduce a bill this week that would cap annual school hikes at 4 percent.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) has supported a tax cap similar to the governor’s, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has said he won’t take up the proposal this year.
The proposal met swift resistance from organized labor, school officials and their allies in the Legislature, who argue it would crimp school districts’ ability to meet expenses.
“The Assembly and the Senate will be wise enough to reject this educationally unsound proposal,” New York State United Teachers President Richard Ianuzzi said.
The AFL-CIO called the tax cap “ill-conceived,” and the labor-backed Working Families Party dismissed it as a “gimmick.”
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MSTA comment- HB 1436 was recently passed by the NH legislature and sent to the governor’s desk for signature. This bill “requires that municipalities continue to fund expired public employee contracts while negotiating new ones. The bill as amended would allow these “evergreen” contracts to continue individual step-pay increases because of seniority…” (Sentinel- 5/30/08) Some MSTA members believe that this is, in effect, an unfunded, unconstitutional government mandate which will raise property taxes regardless of how voters vote on school or municipal budgets. It is a back door tax sneaked in by tax and spend members of the legislature at the behest of the labor unions.