Skelos to guv: Compel Dems' tax-cap vote

ALBANY -- The legislature's top Republican called on the governor Tuesday to compel his fellow Democrats to vote on a bill to limit property tax increases to 2 percent -- just as Democrats said they are preparing their own tax-cap bill.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo should do more to get the Democratic-led Assembly to take up the issue. Cuomo introduced a bill in January to limit property tax increases to 2 percent annually, and the Republican-controlled Senate almost immediately passed it.

Since then, the issue has been effectively on hold while lawmakers sorted out and enacted the state budget. Democrats have said a property tax cap should be twinned with a bill to increase rent-control regulations because, they said, both deal with "keeping people in their homes."

With the legislative session now nearing the home stretch, Skelos said Cuomo should lean on his fellow Democrats -- especially Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) -- on the tax cap.

"What's really necessary is for him to get the speaker and Assembly Democrats to put the bill on the floor [for a vote]," Skelos said. "I'm concerned that the Assembly is stonewalling and not doing it and I would urge the governor to urge them to get it done."

While Cuomo didn't respond directly to Skelos' comments, he has increased the rhetorical volume at news conferences. Monday, he said that if lawmakers failed to pass some type of cap, they will have "disrespected the people of New York."

"The tax cap has such overwhelming support and makes such sense and it is so fundamentally sound and is so important to this state," Cuomo said. "It is shocking that a legislative body that represents the people of this state would have to think twice" about it.

Though Cuomo hasn't followed through on a vow to tour the state to pressure lawmakers, aides said that remained a distinct possibility.

Meanwhile, Silver said he'd soon introduce his own tax-cap bill. The Democrat said it would cap increases at 2 percent but would not say whether it would contain an array of exemptions -- Republicans have said they would oppose any bill "watered down" by exceptions.

"You'll see it [the bill] when it's introduced," Silver told reporters.

Current rent-control laws expire June 15, less than a week before the scheduled end of the legislative session.