The only proven route to long-term and lasting property-tax relief in New York is property-tax limitation - such as capping the annual growth in school-tax levies, Empire Center for New York State Policy Director E.J. McMahon said in testimony today before state Assembly lawmakers.

Public unhappiness over mounting property taxes in New York has only grown in the decade since STAR was first enacted, McMahon told the Assembly Committee on Real Property Taxation. The reason is because the state has failed to address factors such as the high cost of local government and school districts, which are the root cause of the property-tax problem, he said.

"The 'relief' that STAR provides is temporary, like a large dose of fiscal Novocain," McMahon said. "Once that Novocain wears off, the pain only becomes greater.

McMahon said New York should follow the lead of Massachusetts, which in 1980 passed Prop 2-1/2. That proposition capped tax levies and has largely been responsible for a sharp relative decline in the Bay State's local tax burden.