(Albany, NY) Property tax reform is long overdue. Tonight, the Assembly and Senate approved legislation to place a two percent cap on school district and local government tax levies. Unaffordable real property taxes with a two percent cap are still unaffordable. The bill lacked the comprehensive tools needed to actually enable them to keep the lid on costs. Consequently, along with several Hudson Valley colleagues, I voted in the negative.
I agree that aggressive action must be taken to address this crisis, but a property tax cap by itself is not a solution. Our current system is unsustainable. Although there are limited measures in this legislation to enable our schools and local governments to begin the streamlining of their operations, we must do more now to provide them with the tools they need to lower costs while maintaining the ability to provide quality services to the people of our state.
The key to improvement is through the effective distribution of resources and elimination of redundancy. That is why I will continue to work to advance my proposals, the 21st Century Schools Act (A.416) and the Equity in Education Act (A.447). These bills focus on modernizing our education system while easing, and subsequently eliminating, the burden of rising, regressive property taxes as a means of funding. Property tax relief and equal educational opportunity for all of New York’s children will remain top priorities during my service in the Assembly.
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