Question: When is a 2 percent property tax cap not a true 2 percent property tax cap?

Answer: When it is approved in New York.

Voters should keep that in mind when they head to the polls in mid-May to decide the fate of school budgets. And state leaders should prepare to monitor these and other results closely, staying open to the need to improve their efforts to take the burden off property owners.

For the first time, school districts are making their budget proposals with limitations imposed under the property tax cap. School districts are supposedly restricted from increasing the levy, the portion of the budget funded by property taxes, by more than 2 percent or the rate of inflation – whichever is lower.

But not so fast. There are some exemptions, and voters should be aware of them.

The state imposed the cap after years of study – and years of outcry from New Yorkers getting socked with higher costs each year that they could ill afford. That has been especially true for senior citizens living on fixed incomes but still wishing to stay in their homes and not flee New York as so many others have. The situation has gotten much more dire as a result of the recession, with more people losing their jobs and either having to get by on unemployment or settling for work at less pay than they were making.

It’s true school districts have been dealing with the ramifications of the recession as well, especially with cuts in state aid in the two previous years prior to this one. But it’s also true school districts are getting some wiggle room when it comes to the property tax cap…..

Read article here