Senate adjourns after tax-cap stall

ALBANY -- The State Senate adjourned Thursday night after negotiations stalled over a proposed property-tax cap, a top priority for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that would place New York among states with limits on school districts' and local governments' ability to raise taxes.

While the broad outlines of the tax cap had been agreed to weeks ago, Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) said one of the issues still to be worked out was mandate relief. Mandates are programs, services or rules that local governments and school districts are required to provide, fund or follow.

While lawmakers and stakeholders agree that the burden of costly mandates needs to be reduced, working out the details and priorities has been elusive.

"I'm convinced we will get it done," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said. "I'm not just going to keep members here till 5-6 in the morning and risk their health."

Mandate relief is difficult to achieve, said Kevin Law, chief executive of the Long Island Association and a member of the Cuomo commission that made recommendations on the issue.

"These mandates have accumulated over the last 30 years and every law or regulation that imposes a mandate on a school district, or village or town or county has a constituency out there and it's difficult to try to undo them quickly," Law said.

The tax cap is widely popular among New Yorkers, who pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation. More than a third of voters -- 37 percent -- identified a property-tax cap as their top legislative priority in a Siena College poll taken earlier this month.

Lawmakers tied the cap to the renewal of rent regulations; that issue primarily affects New York City, where about 1 million apartments are subject to rent stabilization or rent control.

Under the tax cap, school districts and local governments could raise property-tax revenue by only 2 percent or the rate of inflation each year, whichever is less.

The cap includes several exemptions, and individual property owners could still see their taxes rise by more than 2 percent. The exemptions include some of the growth in pension costs, capital spending, economic development and major legal settlements. The cap could be overridden by a supermajority of 60 percent of voters or a two-thirds majority of a local legislative body.

"There's no question it's going to force some discipline at the local level," said Elizabeth Lynam, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog organization.

Critics worried the cap would force school districts to cut jobs and programs.

The cap could have a greater negative impact on poorer districts because they are more dependent on state aid and less likely to muster votes to override the cap, said Gary Bixhorn, chief operating officer of Eastern Suffolk BOCES.

Joseph Dragone, assistant superintendent for business at the Roslyn school district, said that under the new law the district might have to cut about $1.4 million of spending in the 2012-13 school year but thought that voters would override the cap.