New Yorkers are saving billions of dollars a year thanks to the historic 2011 state law capping annual growth in local government and school property tax levies.
The cap, enacted on a temporary basis and extended in 2015, was made permanent as part of the fiscal 2020 state budget, after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would not agree to a budget deal without it.
Since its enactment, the cap has weathered near-constant criticism from representatives of government employee unions, municipal governments and school districts, who portray it as improperly hindering their ability to raise taxes. Their (so far) unsuccessful efforts to undermine the cap have ranged from lawsuits challenging its constitutionality, to legislation creating loopholes under which taxes could be increased, to proposals that would eliminate the 60 percent supermajority requirement for overrides of the cap by school district voters and municipal governing boards.
For a comprehensive explanation of how the law works, download the Empire Center’s Citizens Guide to the Tax Cap.
Here is the complete statutory tax cap language.
Background information and tax cap implementation data from the Department of Taxation and Finance is available here.
The Office of the State Comptroller offers links to further information on the property tax cap on this page.
Recent analysis and commentary by the Empire Center:
- Permanent tax cap included in budget – E.J. McMahon statement, March 31, 2019
- The cap that worked – Ken Girardin, The Citizen, March 27, 2019
- Tax cap offers strongest shield to NY’s poorest school districts – E.J. McMahon, Research and Data, March 25, 2019
- Cuomo holding strong on tax cap – Ken Girardin, NYTorch, Feb. 10, 2019
- Assembly GOP wants higher taxes – Ken Girardin, NYTorch, Jan. 29, 2019
- Will Cuomo stand his ground? – E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Dec. 19, 2018
- Suburban Dems’ 1st move should be tax cap extension – E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Dec. 3, 2018
- Tax cap keeps getting grief – Ken Girardin, NYTorch, Nov. 4, 2018
- The tax cap is still working – Ken Girardin, NYTorch, June 20, 2018
- Tax cap wreaks chaos—not – Ken Girardin, NYTorch, May 17, 2018
- Tax cap = budget OKs – Ken Girardin, NYTorch, May 17, 2017
- Pols resume tax cap attacks – Tim Hoefer, NYTorch, Feb. 1, 2017
- 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
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