While a last-minute deal to compromise on a variety of issues pleased business groups with the extension of an expiring property tax cap, this year”™s legislative session was greatly overshadowed by ousted political figures and the lawmakers drafted into those leadership roles as a result.
Representatives for business groups were calling for a permanent property tax cap ”” a policy first implemented in 2011 that had been set to expire in 2016 and keeps property taxes from increasing more than 2 percent annually or the rate of inflation ”” but leaders in Albany settled for a four-year extension.
The Business Council of New York State Inc. praised the tax cap”™s inclusion in the package of legislative items worked out by lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mike Durant, the executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business of New York, also made mention of the tax cap”™s approval via a tweet: “Thank you @NYGovCuomo and legislative leaders for extending the property tax cap with very minor modifications.”
“The property tax cap is important and we”™ve called for a permanent extension,” said John Ravitz, executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Business Council of Westchester. “But I guess getting the four-year extension is better than nothing and it does help us.”
Ravitz added that both Carl E. Heastie, speaker of the Assembly, and Senate Majority Leader John J. Flanagan had a lot to do.
Heastie and Flanagan were thrust into their leadership roles this session after Sheldon Silver, the former speaker who represented Manhattan and held the position for 20 years, and Dean G. Skelos, of Long Island and the previous majority leader of the state Senate, were both arrested on charges related to corruption within four months of each other.
“It was a very, very tough year in Albany,” said Ravitz, who was also a member of the Assembly for 12 years, but remained optimistic. “The fact that we got a budget on time and we got some things done in the session, it was definitely a passing grade.”
Opponents of the limit on property taxes include local government officials who rely on the revenue in order to pay for road repairs and unfunded mandates brought on by the state. Fiscally independent school districts and local governments have the ability to override the tax cap with a 60 percent majority vote.
Business groups contend that the tax cap has saved homeowners and other property owners billions of dollars over the course of its four years, but agree that unfunded mandates should be reined in.
“We still want to urge the governor and the Legislature to dig in on mandate relief,” Ravitz said, and added, “It”™s a tough issue to get people excited about.”
Amy Allen, vice president of the Westchester County Association, said the organization has also been an advocate for the tax cap. Allen said, “We were hoping there would be some mandate relief with it,” which she said had been the association”™s position from “day one.”
A Mandate Relief Redesign Team was founded in 2011 through an executive order from the then-recently elected Cuomo. The group penned a preliminary report that proposed ways for the state to minimize the financial burden and “act in partnership” with governments at the local level.
Since the team was disbanded, Republican Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney has sponsored a bill that would among other things reassemble it so as to compile a list of unfunded or underfunded mandates and present them to the Legislature. The bill has idled in the Assembly”™s Committee on Governmental Employees for three years.
“These are issues that aren”™t going to go away,” Ravitz said, but the question, he said, is “Who”™s going to take that leadership role and look at mandates?”
Also set to expire at the end of this year was the Brownfield Cleanup Program, which was saved due to a 10-year extension included in the $142 billion budget for fiscal year 2016. The program provides tax credits to developers who pay to clean up what are often former industrial properties that have been contaminated and require costly cleanups.
The extended legislation ”” which now has a deadline for developer applications for completed cleanups of March 31, 2026 ”” has remained mostly the same, except for some changes to New York City land eligibility.
The Business Council of New York State Inc. called the adopted budget the “session”™s highlight,” in part because the saved brownfield program has spurred more than $6.5 billion in private investment.
A bill that did not make it through the Legislature, a move the Westchester County Association was pleased with, would have required a nurse-patient ratio at statewide hospitals. Allen said this is an issue especially important to its membership, which includes some hospitals in the county.
“The hospitals are a business,” she said. “They don”™t want to be mandated about how to run their business.”
