In Merrick, Cuomo talks tough on schools, taxes

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says he's a "sensitive guy," but has no sympathy for local governments that allow their spending to drive up property taxes of homeowners like Merrick residents Matthew and Allison Kohut.

"I'm a very sympathetic, sensitive guy. I really am," Cuomo said, standing in the driveway of the Kohuts' tidy Cape.

"I understand cutting the budget is hard, but if the option is raising taxes on Matt's household or cutting the government spending . . . I'm more sympathetic to Matt's plight."

With less than three weeks to go, Cuomo is running 18 to 24 points ahead of Republican opponent Carl Paladino, who has been forced to spend part of the week attempting to undo damage caused by his comments on homosexuality at a meeting with rabbis Sunday.

Cuomo was greeted warmly at a dinner of the Empire State Pride Agenda in Manhattan Thursday, where he vowed to fight hate crimes and said he hoped to sign a marriage equality bill into law. "We are looking at an extremist political agenda on the other side of this election," he said.

But in Merrick, Cuomo had mostly tough talk for local governments and school districts that have made New York a national leader in property taxes.

The Kohuts, schoolteachers, pay some $9,300 in property taxes, but are dependent on Allison's income because Matthew Kohut has been laid off twice in cutbacks. Matthew, son of a deputy Long Beach Democratic leader and grandson of GOP county executive Fran Purcell, said Cuomo's tax-cap plan was "moving in the right direction."

Cuomo is working to build popular support for a state law that would cap property tax growth at 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. "I like to spend money; we all like to spend money," he said. "We don't have the money."

The state teachers' union calls the cap a "gimmick" and local government groups say they can't meet it without greater leverage at the bargaining table with public sector unions.

The Association of Counties has urged the state not to impose a cap unless it is coupled with significant cuts in their costs for state mandated programs, especially Medicaid.

Cuomo agreed some mandate relief is needed, but said the blame doesn't rest just with the state. "Counties are buying a lot of things," he said. "Towns are buying a lot of things. Lighting districts, water districts, sewer districts are buying a lot of things. They can't buy as many things as they have been buying because we don't have the money." With Dan Janison