It’s been debated for years: a tax cap limiting property tax hikes to two percent or the inflation rate, whichever is less.

“By the way over the last year the rate of inflation was around one point six percent so if you did it right this year it would be one point six percent,” E.J. McMahon, Empire Center for NYS Policy Director, said.

McMahon says it’s a good start beginning with the upcoming fiscal years. But, “You can raise the tax levy by more than the cap,” he said. “In the case of a school district if you can get a majority of 60 percent of voters in the district.”

Any school tax increase needs 50 percent of the voters’ support and if they don’t approve the proposed school budget.

“The fall back is a contingency budget that has no tax increase in it.,” said McMahon. “It’s a hard freeze on the tax levy in the school district.”

New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi fears all of this could devastate school districts.

“The track record in Massachusetts – your poorer districts, your rural districts that are low wealth, are least likely to pass them. So you have a piece of legislation that is likely going to increase the achievement gap,” he said.

Meanwhile, for local towns and cities – they can also override the tax cap by passing a law and 60 percent of the governing body must approve of the move.

But there are exceptions to the tax cap too. A portion of pension costs aren’t counted towards the cap.

McMahon said, “For many school districts especially in the next few years, the tax cap won’t be two percent, it will be around three or four percent.”

Then, there’s mandate relief, which has the goal of easing the burden on local municipalities, from laws handed down by the state.

“Some of the things we got were considered very, very low hanging fruit,” said New York Conference of Mayors’ Barbara VanEpps.

She pointed out that local governments will have more flexibility purchasing goods, for example, but Medicaid and other big ticket items didn’t make it. Meaning costs remain, while the tax cap squeezes revenue.

“We think this will result in a huge decrease in the number of municipal jobs across the state,” VanEpps said.

McMahon said, “Opponents of the tax increase kept arguing this somehow sapped local control or was undemocratic. Far from it. If voters want a tax increase, they’ll pass it.”

The one thing all sides do agree on is that there will likely be continued attempts to chip away at the new laws.

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