CAPITOL Outlook grim for tax cap bill Measure not likely to come up for vote this session BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter
Gov. David Paterson’s program bill to stop school districts from raising property taxes more than 4 percent a year appears dead in the water this legislative session. The bill seems unlikely to pass either the Senate or Assembly. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, deflected questions about Paterson’s bill Tuesday, complaining that the media has devoted insufficient attention to Senate bills that he said would control taxes and spending. Dan Weiller, chief spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the speaker is concerned about ensuring that schools have adequate resources to educate children. He said there was nothing new since a noncommittal June 2 Silver statement responding to the Commission on Property Tax Relief’s report, and declined to say whether Paterson’s bill would come to the floor of the Assembly. The commission, chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, recommended a tax cap, along with a “circuit breaker” giving property tax relief to lower-income homeowners, and cost-control measures. Paterson’s bill deals just with the tax cap. He and Suozzi said the circuit-breaker would not work well without the cap. The strength of the opposition to the Paterson bill could be seen at a news conference Tuesday, where a coalition including the New York State United Teachers union, the state School Boards Association, organizations representing school administrators, the state Parent Teachers Association and other educational groups came out against it. NYSUT has already started running radio ads making their case. Alan Lubin, a NYSUT vice president, said the bill would mean “the end of public education as we know it,” and “decimate the funds going into our schools. … Don’t destroy our schools,” he urged. Others at the news conference said the cap would undermine educational quality and reverse recent progress toward equity. PTA President Maria DeWald asked why the cap would apply just to schools, and not to other governmental entities that levy property taxes. “Haven’t the schools been far more responsible than other forms of government?” she asked. Fuel and special educations costs drive up budgets, she said, and if a tax cap were passed, “The PTA can’t live with the resultant cuts in other programs.” The Suozzi commission is slated to address special education costs in its final report, due in December. It did include cost-cutting measures in its preliminary report, including revising the Taylor Law governing public employee unions. The commission proposed revising the law to deny teachers automatic pay increases when they are working under the terms of an expired contract. Paterson has not taken a position on that part of the report. Nor has Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady. In fact, Tedisco, like Bruno and Silver, has yet to take a firm position on Paterson’s program bill, although he was previously a vocal advocate of a tax cap. Joshua Fitzpatrick, spokesman for the Assembly Republicans, said they will discuss the issue today in conference. Suozzi conceded that the cap may not be passed this legislative session, which is scheduled to end June 23. “We all know it’s very hard to move this in Albany,” he said. “It’s like turning around the Titanic.” But he said there is “a groundswell of people who are upset about property taxes. You don’t have to manufacture that.” It’s not an issue like campaign finance reform, he said, which only a few people care about, but rather “It’s the type of thing which people will march in the streets about.” Suozzi said he expects that public pressure will at some point persuade legislative leaders to enact meaningful property tax relief. Opponents of the tax cap, Suozzi said, “have grown accustomed to the status quo.” But he said he respects the intelligence and ability of Silver and Bruno, and has discussed the issue with them. “They’ve both said they want to do something about property taxes,” he said. “… They know this is a real issue.” Suozzi led the bipartisan Fix Albany campaign before running for governor in 2006, and being crushed by Eliot Spitzer in the Democratic primary. At that time, Spitzer opposed a tax cap, but he changed his mind last year and named Suozzi to head the commission. After Spitzer’s resignation in March, Paterson has embraced as governor more fiscally conservative positions than he had previously been known for, including support for the Suozzi commission.
Channel 6 news, tonight said that NYS has the highest property tax in the country!!! When are our government officials going to stop spending?????
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
While the proposal for a tax cap has gotten all the attention, there is more to the Suozzi Commission (New York State Commission on Local Property Taxes) report than that. One of its more intriguing recommendations is the consolidation of school districts, not only in terms of non-instructional services, where there are significant savings to be had, but in terms of the districts themselves, where there are even bigger potential savings. This is not an original recommendation. It is among 70 made by the New York State Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness (LGEC), which was created last year, worked 12 months and issued its report in April. The Suozzi Commission acknowledges the contribution of the other commission and embraces some of its recommendations, including those on regional service delivery and school district restructuring, which it said are “central” to its work. According to the Suozzi report, there are just under 700 school districts in New York state and nearly one-third of them had fewer than 1,000 students in 2005. Most of these small districts are in rural parts of upstate, particularly the North Country (Newcomb, the smallest district in the state, has just 64 students K-12) But they can also be found on densely populated Long Island. Over one fifth of the 120 districts there have fewer than 1,500 students, with an average district size of under 800. And it’s not as if all these small districts around the state are awaiting a surge of new students; in most, enrollment has been steadily declining and is expected to continue that way. At the very least, these districts should be sharing services on a regional basis, including transportation, legal services and purchasing, with BOCES playing a bigger role than it does now. One such role, recommended by the LCEG, is for BOCES to negotiate collective bargaining agreements (initially for new hires, with existing employees “grandfathered” for a time.) Not only would this save duplication and level the playing field with teachers unions during negotiations, says the Suozzi report, it could make it easier to consolidate districts by eliminating different salary scales for neighboring districts. It could also prevent the costly “leveling up” of salaries and benefits when a merger is undertaken. And in some cases, districts should merge, just as the Draper and Mohonasen districts did in 1987 and the Cobleskill and Richmondville districts did in 1994. Besides saving money through reduced administration and economies of scale, the larger student population and tax base can allow for more subject offerings and better facilities. The state currently offers generous incentives to consolidate, including a 40 percent increase in operating aid for five years and up to 95 percent reimbursement for construction. Despite these, few districts actively pursue reorganization. It may be time for the state to start thinking about combining a stick with that carrot.
Paterson, lawmakers debate proposed property BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said Tuesday that he would support Gov. David Paterson’s program bill to cap school property taxes if it comes to the floor of the Assembly. Tedisco said he still prefers the Assembly Republicans’ tax-cap package and would like to see mandate-relief measures included, along with a “circuit-breaker” to give income-tax credits to those paying a high percentage of their annual earnings on property taxes. Earlier Tuesday, Paterson made another push for a tax cap at a news conference with anti-tax activists and Tom Suozzi, chairman of the state Commission on Property Tax Relief. Supporters wore caps and shirts with the number “74” on them, a reference to a Siena Research Institute poll released Monday showing 74 percent support for Paterson’s 4 percent annual cap on school taxes. Tedisco agreed with Paterson and Suozzi that a circuit breaker would not work without a cap. When it comes to the mandaterelief measures, however, Tedisco, like Paterson, declined to say which of the Suozzi commission proposals he supports or rejects. The commission’s proposals include revising the Taylor Law to eliminate automatic teacher raises when contracts expire. Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, also has supported a tax cap, and, like Tedisco, has called for a more stringent one than Paterson and Suozzi. Tedisco said each house should pass a bill and resolve their differences in a conference committee. But Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, both reiterated Tuesday that they are not prepared to support the Paterson bill, saying they want more comprehensive solutions. Bruno is calling for — and the Senate has passed — a five-year phase-out of all school property taxes. Silver on Tuesday repeated his objections to a cap, while not ruling one out. The speaker said the issue is complex and an overall solution is needed that guarantees schools get the resources necessary to meet rising costs such as fuel and gasoline. Paterson said Bruno’s plan is unrealistic because it adds to the state deficit and would force an increase in the income tax. Silver has supported, and the other leaders opposed, increasing income taxes on those earning $1 million and more per year. Some of the anti-tax cap groups, such as the union-funded New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, also favor higher income taxes on the wealthy. NYFF’s executive director, Ron Deutsch, said its top property tax priority is passage of the circuit breaker, noting that one circuit breaker bill has majority party sponsors in each house. The Paterson program bill is opposed by the entire educational establishment, the most powerful part of which is the teachers union, New York State United Teachers. NYSUT says the tax cap would damage public education and limit democracy by denying school districts the right to raise their own taxes. NYSUT is a lavish contributor to the majority party members of both houses, and the Legislature generally supports the agendas of NYSUT and other public-employee unions. Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network said it does not have a position on the tax cap but favors a circuit breaker and increasing income taxes on the rich. At Paterson’s news conference, he said property taxes are driving people out of the state. Deutsch said later that other factors are likely at work in addition to taxes. Paterson said legislative leaders are engaged in “the typical Albany games of one-house bills and posturing.” He also objected to nonlegislators who oppose his bill calling it “dead on arrival,” saying that sounded undemocratic. Even supporters of the Paterson bill, such as Business Council President Ken Adams, seemed resigned to a struggle extending beyond this legislative session, which is scheduled to end on Monday. “We’re going to really press it at a local level all summer long,” Adams said.
At the very least, these districts should be sharing services on a regional basis, including transportation, legal services and purchasing, with BOCES playing a bigger role than it does now.
who wants their child on a 2hour bus ride to and from school----there's a half empty cup and a whole bunch of 'life lessons'----I would quit my job just to transport my kids.......and the state can voucher me......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
At the very least, these districts should be sharing services on a regional basis, including transportation, legal services and purchasing, with BOCES playing a bigger role than it does now.
who wants their child on a 2hour bus ride to and from school----there's a half empty cup and a whole bunch of 'life lessons'----I would quit my job just to transport my kids.......and the state can voucher me......
Quoted Text
But Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, both reiterated Tuesday that they are not prepared to support the Paterson bill, saying they want more comprehensive solutions. Bruno is calling for — and the Senate has passed — a five-year phase-out of all school property taxes.
just remember 'THE STATE/FED' will get all of the control on the edumacation no matter where you live.....whom ever controls the $$ controls the masses....if we dont want to pay for our schools and 'own them' in the most private way possible Sparta or Sodom and Gemmorah or some other craziness will reign......
we dont want the control removed just the arbitrators and contract negotiators whipped.........is the $$ alot sure, could it be better spent----you betcha'----audit the NYS lottery and the teachers unions.........and kill those monkeys on our backs........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Why does tax cap so rile NYSUT? Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
I wrote dismissively the other day about the tax cap that is being proposed by Gov. Paterson, suggesting that what we need instead is a spending cap, otherwise school costs will just be paid out of one pocket rather than the other. That is, they will be paid out of the state budget rather than out of our local property taxes, but it will still be our tax money, and spending will still go up and up. Right away I was taken to task by E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, who wanted to know why I thought NYSUT was so dead set against this tax-cap idea if it didn’t amount to anything. I had to admit he had a point. If NYSUT, the state’s largest teachers’ union, is against it there must be something to it. NYSUT has published papers and held press conferences to denounce what it calls this “arbitrary tax cap,” which it says will “take away the voice of the voters,” “impose artificial limits on school spending” and be “too destructive to education.” That should have made me suspicious. In case you haven’t followed this controversy, the idea is to impose a legal limit on how much local school boards can increase their property-tax haul from one year to the next. That limit would be 4 percent (not small), or 20 percent above the rate of inflation (also not small), whichever is less. That is, every year they could tax their residents just that much more than they taxed them the previous year, in terms of total take. This is in response to growing resentment among us homeowners about how much we have to shell out to our local school districts each year. Since we get a separate bill for our school taxes, we are very much aware of the amount, as opposed to the amount we pay to support the Legislature’s 3,000-member staff, let’s say, which is part of the state budget and therefore a small portion of what gets deducted from our paychecks and which we probably never think about. How popular is this tax-cap idea? A Siena poll found that 74 percent of New Yorkers favor it, which is about as high a percentage of New Yorkers you will find who agree on anything. Another way of measuring the popularity: The Senate, whose Republican majority, based in Long Island, is under great electoral pressure this year, hurriedly passed an alternative, endeavoring to go the governor and his fellow Democrats one better. They will get rid of school property taxes altogether — phase them out over five years. The state will take over support of schools. Just to show you how far out in front they are and what firm friends they are of the local homeowner. (If it doesn’t work, and if they lose two seats in November, they are out of power.) My question was, with local tax potential limited by a “cap” and the state shouldering an ever larger share of school costs, what is to prevent those costs from continuing to rise just as they have been rising in the past? Why wouldn’t our state Legislature, already subservient to NYSUT and other public-employee unions, just keep shoveling out more and more? Since the money would be buried in the larger state budget and we wouldn’t have to write a separate check for it, we probably wouldn’t even notice, at least in the short term. The answer, McMahon says, is competition. “If it goes to the state level they cannot afford to make everybody whole,” meaning give everybody everything they want. “You’ve got a big Medicaid program. You have to build roads and bridges. You have a 200,000-mem-See STROCK, page B7 ber state workforce that they have to feed. They’re all rivals. They’re all at the trough trying to nudge each other aside,” which I admit is an image I like. It does explain why NYSUT is so adamantly opposed. They’ve got their own private trough, as things stand now, in the form of local school taxes, and someone is trying to get them to do more of their feeding at the common trough. Overall it’s a nice sysem. They organize to elect compliant school board members, often retired teachers or teachers who work in neighboring districts, and they succeed in making annual budget votes meaningless exercises, to the end of raising their own pay and benefits while decreasing their workload. It is a system that has been painstakingly constructed over the years with the connivance or acquiesence of the Legislature, and now a change is being proposed. They don’t want a change. They like the system as it is. They like being paid 17 percent above the national average. They like getting automatic raises even after their contracts supposedly expire. They like having more and more aides and other support staff even as the number of students continues to decline. They like being able to retire in mid-life with a comfortable income. There are other changes the state commission proposed that are also anathema, like scrapping the law that mandates those automatic raises, or requiring school districts to report to the public the results of contract negotations. That’s one I would really like to see — the publication of teachers’ and administrators’ contracts on schools’ Web sites so I wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of filing Freedom of Information requests for them. But the big thing is the limit on how much schools could increase their tax haul from one year to the next, even though it is a generous limit and even though it could be overriden by 55 percent of the voters of a district. Any limit at all has NYSUT agitated, any attempt to divert them from their private trough to the common one, and I guess that’s something. So I have rethought my understanding of this one.
Teachers are at the trough while at the same time being 'ranchers'.....that was my opinion of school when I was in school......we were herded around like cattle....with no particular place to go and sometimes there was a 'stampede' of sorts depending on the group of amassed cattle kids....and while I knew that school was no longer the school my parents went to I did realize I was being taught by the hippy/yuppies......meanwhile the Bible was being removed from the shelves of English classes.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
CAPITOL Senate GOP edges closer to approving tax cap bill BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press
Senate Republicans, feeling pressure from a Democratic governor, business and taxpayer groups, opinion polls and voters, are moving closer to supporting a property tax cap despite strong opposition by powerful unions. “If we get a bill, we’ll probably pass it,” Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said Thursday. The Republican had opposed Gov. David Paterson’s proposal to cap property taxes at 4 percent year since the Democratic governor made the proposal two weeks ago. Instead, Bruno had resurrected a year-old Senate GOP proposal to allow for the potential phasing out of school taxes — the biggest property tax — at the option of school districts. That proposal has gained no support in the Assembly’s Democratic majority and appeared doomed to inaction again this year. “We think cuts are better than caps,” Bruno said as recently as Wednesday night. On Thursday, he warmed to curbing taxes if he couldn’t end them. “What we’re looking for is getting something in place that if you can’t reduce property taxes, at least you can control the escalation,” Bruno said. “We want to do whatever there is we can do to help control escalating property taxes.” Republican senators will face the biggest challenge yet to their decades-old majority in the fall elections. The GOP majority’s rival, Senate Democratic leader Malcolm Smith of Queens, has already supported a tax cap and wants it even tougher — 2 percent with no chance for an override by local voters. Bruno’s comments could put pressure on members of the Assembly’s Democratic majority, some of whom represent districts with some of the nation’s highest property taxes and would have preferred to avoid a vote on the cap. The cap is opposed by their leader, Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan, who insists it must include a guarantee that schools will get replacement funding from the state. “I would say we’re close,” Paterson said Thursday. Rank-and-file Assembly Democrats, however, said Thursday that their conference’s view hasn’t changed. But their position has. Now the Assembly Democrats appear to be the lone, solid opposition to Paterson’s tax cap after Bruno’s comments, Smith’s position and the support of Assembly Republican leader James Tedisco who wore a “tax cap” baseball cap at Wednesday night’s news conference. A Siena College poll on Monday found Paterson’s cap was supported by 74 percent of New York voters. The opposition is led by the powerful New York State United Teachers union, one of Albany’s biggest lobbying forces and a top campaign contributor.
EDITORIALS There’s still time for last-minute tax-cap deal
At last, there may be some movement at the Capitol over a school property tax cap. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has reportedly abandoned his radical plan to phase out school property taxes, and will support Gov. David Paterson’s proposal for a 4 percent cap. Bruno’s capitulation may be just what it takes to get Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to the table for a deal between now and Monday night’s scheduled end of session. And even though the table will invariably be behind closed doors and the deal last-minute, the upshot will likely represent an improvement over the status quo. Property taxes are the largest burden for most state taxpayers, and the ones that finance education are generally the highest. Even after the relief provided by the STAR program, school taxes routinely rise faster than the general inflation rate everywhere. Teachers have denounced the concept of a cap, claiming it will hurt education; what they refuse to acknowledge is that runaway school spending is bankrupting taxpayers. A 4 percent cap (or 20 percent over the inflation rate, if it is higher) is hardly that Draconian, and a cap could be overridden with but 55 percent of the vote. The only omission from Paterson’s proposal is a so-called circuitbreaker — the idea of a tax credit for poorer homeowners who get stuck paying too high a percentage of their income on school taxes. But the tax cap is clearly an idea whose time has come — three-quarters of all New Yorkers support it. Silver has to stop doing the teachers union’s bidding on this issue and listen to his constituents.
I challenge anyone to explain to me, and the rest of the property owners in New York, why at 83 years old, retired on a fixed income, I’m forced to contribute part of that income to give retired teachers an income! My retirement income comes from two sources — Social Security and the General Electric retirement fund. The first day I went to work for GE, I signed up for the pension fund and, of course, I was forced to pay into Social Security. During my working years, I saved for my retirement. As I understand the GE fund, during my working years and as part of my wages, GE also contributed to the fund, and now my retirement income isn’t dependent on the company but upon the built-up fund. I, as are all others, am feeling the pinch. I own my home and pay property taxes. Why should the retired teachers have their hands in my wallet? They had just as much opportunity during their teaching years to build up their future as I did mine. Why should my income in my retirement be reduced to pay people who could have, but did not, help themselves? DONALD E. ERDMAN Glenville
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....or the monkey is dead......
