In fliers mailed to Jefferson County residents, state Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, claims to have saved taxpayers in her three-county district $36 million on their property tax bills.

But experts on the right and left say that the claim — based on her support for the 2011 state law that limits property tax hikes — is unknowable at best and misleading at worst.

“Ironically, I don’t think she needed to do it,” said Edmund J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy. “I was a major advocate of a tax cap, and I think it will work. The brochure goes too far in actually specifying a figure, I think.”

Mrs. Ritchie’s office said that the claim in the flier, which was paid for with public funds, is based on a Senate Finance Committee report. The report compared tax levies at school districts in her Senate district from last year, before the cap, to this year, after the cap. The property tax cap limits the amount that schools, counties, towns or villages can raise from homeowners by a percentage determined by things such as growth in the community, pension costs and the health of the economy.

Mrs. Ritchie defended her claims and the report that it was based on, and said the cap would save homeowners millions….

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