Assemblyman Kolb reading to young students.

Nothing is more important to educating tomorrow’s leaders than ensuring we provide the means to do so. This year the state Legislature took a big step to enhance education by including a record state aid increase of $1.8 billion in the budget to help schools across the state and the Finger Lakes. As a result, districts in the 129th Assembly District have a greater amount of state school aid to help educate children than ever before. I supported this increase to assist in providing quality education without having to go to property taxpayers.

As your Assemblyman, quality education and relieving our property tax burden are two of my top priorities. While I know the actions taken this year do not provide a permanent fix, it is a start toward providing permanent relief to taxpayers while ensuring that the quality of education is not sacrificed. With this in mind, I am supporting a number of proposals to enhance education and provide for long-term property tax relief.

This brochure provides you with information about these proposals and other legislative matters I am working on in Albany to provide quality education our children need, and tax relief for homeowners and businesses. To stay informed, sign up today for my free legislative e-update by sending a request to: kolbb@assembly.state.ny.us.

Property taxes in New York State rank among the highest in our nation and the School Tax Relief (STAR) Program’s effectiveness has been diminished, due in part to school districts and local governments raising taxes substantially. My plan would provide more immediate long-term relief than what is provided by the current system of rebates. It would cut, cap and control property taxes with no need to worry about applications and deadlines.

This is the first comprehensive proposal that would cut spending across the board and return the savings back to taxpayers in direct property tax cuts. The proposal provides a foundation from which the Legislature and governor can work to reach a feasible solution to the systemic problem of skyrocketing taxes.

My legislative proposal would fix the problem by:

• Preventing school district property tax levies from increasing by more than 4% each year or the rate of inflation, whichever is less, and providing voters with the ability to override this limitation by a 2/3 majority vote.
• Requiring any state mandate that is imposed on a locality and costs more than $10,000 annually (or $1 million statewide) to be funded by the state.
• Providing 100% reimbursement to schools for costs incurred from 4th and 8th grade math and English tests, starting in the 2008-09 school year.
• Consolidating school district paperwork requirements, saving time and money.
• Providing money for counties to buy software for Medicaid fraud investigations.
• Creating an Office of State Inspector General for Education to investigate financial abuse, corruption and misconduct in schools.