Don't link tax cap to rent issue
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan speaks in the Assembly Chamber in Albany on Monday. Credit: AP
Demonstrating once again how hard it is for any good deed to pass through Albany without harmful strings attached, Democrats in the state Assembly have suggested they might go along with a property tax cap - if Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will support extending and even expanding rent regulations for New York City and surrounding counties.
These misguided regulations cover 12,000 apartments in Nassau County - but 1 million in New York City. That's why city politicians, such as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), often sound like Jimmy McMillan on this issue, perennially insisting that "the rent is too damn high."
Leaving aside the merits of rent control, which are scant, there is simply no good reason to hold a proposed property tax cap hostage to this issue. Indeed, limits on rents suppress tax valuations on rental property, thereby shifting more of the property-tax burden onto homeowners.
That burden is already too great, which is why we need a property tax cap, coupled with state spending constraints, regardless of any rent regulations. But that's business as usual in Albany. One wonders what other dubious proposals politicians will put forward in order, finally, to do the right thing for the voters. hN
