In 2011, New York enacted a property tax cap that limited the growth of school and local property taxes. The Empire Center calculated in 2015 that New Yorkers would have paid an additional $7 billion in school taxes alone if the 30-year pre-cap rate of levy growth had continued.
The cap, which was renewed through 2020 at the end of the 2015 legislative session, continues to weather attacks from opponents, who portray it as improperly hindering their ability to raise taxes. These efforts have ranged from unsuccessfully challenging the constitutionality of the cap to creating loopholes under which taxes could be increased, to eliminating the supermajority requirement for school budgets that would exceed the cap.
Recent analysis and commentary by the Empire Center:
Will Albany bust the cap? – Ken Girardin, NYTorch , June 10, 2016
The tax cap works, again – Ken Girardin, NYTorch , May 18, 2016
Tax cap survives latest challenge – E.J. McMahon, NYTorch , May 6, 2016
Tax cap a near-freeze for 2016-17 – E.J. McMahon, NYTorch , Jan. 21, 2016
Crocodile tears of NY’s tax cap – E.J. McMahon, New York Post , Oct. 5, 2015
LI towns cry a river on tax cap – E.J. McMahon, NYTorch, Sept. 29, 2015
“Warning”: taxes might not rise – Ken Girardin, NYTorch , June 11, 2015
The cap-buster count, 2015 edition – Tim Hoefer, NYTorch , May 20, 2015
School tax growth sinks under cap – E.J. McMahon & Ken Girardin, Research and Data , May 18, 2015
You may also like
The newly enacted state budget imposes a multibillion-dollar tax on health insurance without specifying who must pay how much – leaving those basic details to be decided later by the health commissioner in negotiation wit
Read More
Gov. Hochul faces a challenge that will define her legacy as the state’s executive. To succeed, she must do absolutely nothing.
Read More
Psst, have you heard about the new cheat code? It isn’t about slaying computer-generated dragons. It’s about gaming the federal Treasury—and states are rushing to cash in before Washington shuts the gimmick down.
Read More
On March 7, Gov. Kay Ivey making Alabama the 11th state since 2011 to enact universal school choice. With its approval, it doesn’t matter if families choose to enroll at a public or private school, or to homeschool—Alabama’s state
Read More
"This year’s budget process was an avoidable trainwreck. New York is the only state that begins its fiscal year on April 1, earlier than anyone else. This has contributed to Albany’s new, old tradition of missing deadlines, then hurriedly voting on bills before lawmakers can fully review them. Moving the fiscal year start would make the budget process more transparent and give lawmakers time to better perform their duty as the state’s board of directors."
Read More
In this episode of Messages of Necessity, Kyle Davis, Director of Public Affairs at the Empire Center, has a conversation with the organization's new Executive Director, Zilvinas Silenas (also known as Z). Together, they delve into Silenas's background an
Read More
Author's note: This post has been updated to correct an error in the second paragraph.
As state lawmakers debate the future of Medicaid home care, one of the program's bigg
Read More
The episode shows the extent to which New York elected officials fail to question the state’s public employee unions—or look at data themselves.
Read More