A state tax cap imposed on governments and school districts will be a bit more restrictive in 2014 due to a decline in inflation.
The cap limits the amount school districts, counties, cities and towns can increase their tax levies annually. The cap has been 2 percent since 2012, but will be reduced to 1.66 in 2014, according to the formula from the New York state comptroller.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat and Westchester resident, made reining in skyrocketing property taxes a focus upon his election in 2011. Municipal government and school district officials have criticized the cap for being a hindrance to local budgets, forcing cuts and coming without relief of unfunded state mandates that drive a majority of public sector budgets.
State Sen. Greg Ball, a Patterson Republican, supports the tax cap, but announced he has set up a mandate relief advisory council” and will be hosting an “Unfunded Mandate and Tax Relief Roundtable” at Mahopac High School Sept. 7.
“From burdensome testing requirements to local reporting nightmares and mountains of administrative bureaucracy, there is a great deal that Albany can and must still do to lighten the administrative stranglehold on our local governments and schools,” he said. “Simply put, there are myriad opportunities for Albany to deliver relief and we should get back to Albany to do exactly that.”
Although the levy cap is set at a 2 percent increase annually, a complex formula and several exceptions can slightly alter the levy allowable for local municipalities. The cap cannot exceed the rate of inflation, based on a 12-month average of the consumer price index. The formula is determined six months prior to the start of the fiscal year.
Governments can override the tax cap by a supermajority vote. School districts, whose budgets are voted upon in public referendum, must receive 60 percent voter support of a budget that overrides the tax cap.
Locally, overrides of the tax cap have been rare. Notable instances include the village of Bronxville, which overrode the tax cap in its 2012-13 fiscal year after consecutive, cap-free years in which it issued zero percent increases.
The Scarsdale Union Free School District issued a cap-busting $144 million budget that was soundly defeated in a record-turnout vote, the first time a Scarsdale budget had failed to get community support since the 1970s. A revised budget, now under the cap, was approved by voters in a June revote.
