NEW YORK (WBEN - Brendan Keany) - Governor Andrew Cuomo is adamant about a permanent property tax cap being included in this year's state budget.
I won't allow a state budget that does not include a permanent property tax cap, and neither will the Long Island state senate delegation.No tax cap – no deal pic.twitter.com/uI6qyrmaSY
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 24, 2019
"This hand will never sign a budget that doesn't have a permanent property tax cap," said Cuomo.
Basically, the tax cap legislation limits the annual percentage increase that local government or school districts can levy to about 2-percent, and that provision is set to expire next year.
Peter Hunt is chairman and CEO of the Hunt Real Estate Corporation, and he believes continuing a tax cap would be a good thing for the state.
"It would keep property taxes from going up exponentially, which they could without such a cap," said Hunt. "I definitely support it because the alternative is that there is no cap, and if there's no cap, then obviously state and local legislators can raise rates however they feel like it, and that would be punitive."
Cuomo has focused a lot of his attention in Downstate and Long Island in recent weeks, especially in trying to raise more support for this property tax cap, but Hunt says high taxes are felt upstate and in Western New York too.
"I think Upstate is suffering from high real property taxes and has been for a long time," he said. "For example, if you have a $150,000 in Upstate New York, you're going to pay more as a percentage of that house than you're going to pay in most of our neighboring states, including Pennsylvania and Ohio."
While Hunt reiterated that he does support a tax cap, and he appreciates that Cuomo is standing firm in his approach, Hunt believes this legislation would only be scratching the surface of what needs to be done in New York State.
"I think it's a nice gesture, but what we really need to do is roll taxes back in the state," said Hunt. "We really need to look at the overall level of taxation in the state - a cap is a good start as I said - but the fact of the matter is that we're overtaxed in this state as opposed to other states...period."
Cuomo's administration has stated that the tax cap has saved New York residents more than $24 billion.
