Rockland Business Association joins in fight for state property tax cap
RBA Press Release
July 2, 2008

The Rockland Business Association agrees with most New Yorkers that the state needs a property tax cap. A June Siena College Research Institute poll found that 74 percent of state residents are in favor of a cap.

In turn, the RBA is now a member of the newly formed New York Property Tax Cap Coalition, which has launched www.taxcapnow.org. The web site features a running list of its pro-cap members (currently about 550), which includes both individuals and groups and information about the property tax issue.

“New York has been losing 200,000 residents every year since 2000,” said Al Samuels, RBA President/CEO. “We are losing our young people. Our college graduates are going elsewhere to work, seniors are being driven from their homes and New York is considered the second worst state in which to conduct business.”
Samuels attributes these losses to New York’s taxing environment. “We must take dramatic action to end the spiraling costs and improve our ability to attract and retain business. The tax cap is a first step in achieving change and must be complimented by a reduction in unfunded mandates and possibly a ‘circuit-breaker’ component,” he said.

Governor Paterson is pushing to cap school levies at four percent annually or 120 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is lower. “This proposal is responsible,” Paterson said. “It is desperately needed … [and] I believe we need to come together and make it happen.”

The Business Council of New York State, of which the RBA is a member, is a driving force behind the Coalition. “From Long Island to Buffalo and everywhere in between New Yorkers are demanding the cap,” said Kenneth Adams, President and CEO of the Business Council. “Major chambers of commerce are mobilizing on this issue.”
Adams said the objective was to build support for Paterson’s cap and serve as a counterweight to powerful opponents, such as the 600,000-member teacher’s union, New York State United Teachers and the Working Families party. This will be one of the items Adams discusses at this month’s RBA General Membership Luncheon on July 17 at The Rockland Country Club, beginning at 11:30 a.m.

The Coalition notes the real issue behind soaring property taxes is school spending, which in New York surpasses all other states, growing 7.9 percent annually. They contend that simply spending more money doesn’t improve students’ performance.

“New York has the highest per capita expenditure for primary and secondary grade students in the country and ranks a pathetic 43rd in terms of high school graduation rates,” Samuels noted.

The Coalition’s web site points out: New York State’s local taxes are the highest in the country, at 79 percent above the national average; outside of New York City, 62 percent of property taxes are school property taxes; and property tax levies are rising at more than twice the rate of inflation and salary growth.

The tax cap is proving to be one of the most important issues in New York and could have a large influence on the outcome of the November state elections.

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