Cahill Disappointed in Senate’s Rejection of Property Tax Circuit Breaker

Senate Majority votes down property tax reform measure that would have delivered immediate relief based on income

The State Senate voted down legislation that would have instant tax relief to those who need it most. Assemblymember Kevin Cahill (D – Ulster, Dutchess) said, “The Senate Majority failed at confronting the property tax crisis when they voted down the one piece of legislation that would have helped our communities immediately.”

The proposal, known as a circuit breaker, would have established a maximum percentage of income that a household can be required to pay in property taxes. If the household's property tax bill exceeds this amount, the State rebates all or part of tax payments above the limit. The circuit breaker would target substantial assistance to lower income families with high housing costs and high property taxes, while simultaneously protecting middle income households which have property tax costs that are disproportionate to their earnings.

“It is a shame that in this time when so many New Yorkers are hurting due to the economic downturn, rising energy costs and a regressive tax structure the Senate Majority came back to Albany to play politics,” said Assemblymember Cahill. “By voting down the circuit breaker and failing to address the coming home heating crisis the Senate Majority proved that they are not interested in doing the people’s business.”

“By simply enacting the tax cap proposed by the Suozzi Commission, the Senate is seeking to lock us into this regressive and failed education funding model,” said Assemblymember Cahill. “The cap allows for continued increases in property taxes and can be easily overridden. Merely slowing the growth of property taxes is not the answer; we need to focus on eliminating this destabilizing tax.”

Cahill has been gathering support for his legislation (A.4746) which calls on the State to provide full funding of what constitutes a basic quality education for all children. The bill mandates the reversal and gradual elimination of school property taxes in favor of a progressive education income surcharge.

The Legislature has begun to adopt Cahill’s approach of dedicating more state funding to education in order to reduce the local burden. Over the past two years, the Legislature has provided an unprecedented $3.6 billion in increases in targeted state aid which, coupled with basic funding increases for all schools, has begun to stem the tide of property tax increases.

What's New