ALBANY – A coalition of education groups is urging the state Legislature to make changes to the property-tax cap that was installed in 2011, saying the restrictions are straining school budgets.

This could be a critical year for the tax cap: It is set to expire next year, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to make it permanent. The cap has also been tied to extension of New York City rent control laws, which expire this year.

Cuomo has hailed the cap for limiting the growth in property taxes in a state with the highest costs in the nation. Yet schools and local governments have criticized it, arguing that the cap’s provisions make it difficult to fund programs and services. They have sought to overturn the cap in court, but they have been unsuccessful.

A Cuomo spokesman ripped the groups’ recommendations.

“The tax cap has worked to tame out-of-control property tax increases, and we’re not surprised that the same special interests that failed to overturn the cap in court are trying new avenues to turn back the clock at the expense of New York property taxpayers,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said.

In particular, schools face added challenges under the cap that local governments do not. In order to override the cap, districts need 60 percent approval of voters at the polls in May, whereas municipalities need 60 percent of their local governing boards — which in the case of a five-member town or village board is a simple majority.

As a result, just 4 percent of schools were successful in 2013 in overriding the cap, compared to 35 percent of villages, the groups said in a report.

“It is clear that the law has resulted in some fundamental challenges with the school budgeting process and the efforts of schools to sustain quality programs for all students,” the New York State Educational Conference Board said in the report Thursday.

The group, which includes the teachers’ union, superintendents and the state School Boards Association, recommended the state Legislature no longer require the supermajority to override the veto. Instead, the override would be a separate question on the May ballot and require only a simple majority of more than 50 percent to pass.

Another change sought by the school groups would be to no longer tie the cap limit to the rate of inflation. Currently, the cap allows for tax growth of 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. So for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, the cap limit is 1.62 percent.

Schools also want the Legislature and Cuomo to remove what districts have felt is a poison pill. If a school budget is rejected twice, the district can’t increase taxes at all that year.

The measure, critics say, has made it nearly impossible for a district whose budget failed the first time to not submit a smaller tax increase on the second vote — fearing they would get no increase if it’s rejected again.

But the provision, supporters say, has forced districts to tighten their belts. Prior to the cap, the so-called contingency budget — after a school vote failed twice — would carry about a 4 percent tax levy increase.

“It’s not surprising that they are looking to gut the cap,” said E.J. McMahon, executive director of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany. “It’s having a real effect on their spending patterns, and they don’t like it.”

Cuomo has sought to strengthen the cap. In his budget plan for the fiscal year that starts April 1, he is proposing a $1.7 billion tax-rebate program for middle-class homeowners if their communities stay under the cap.

Last year, the Legislature approved a separate rebate program, called a tax freeze, which provides homeowners a rebate for the growth in property taxes. But again, local governments and schools have had to stay under the cap for residents to be eligible.

Cuomo said the cap is working: Tax bills in 2013 went up 1.8 percent compared to an average of 5 percent the prior 10 years.

“The evidence shows that the cap is effective as is and should be made permanent,” Azzopardi said.

What’s at stake

The property-tax cap instituted in 2011 has curbed the growth in property taxes, but schools want modifications this year to alleviate some of its provisions. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has lauded the cap and wants to make it permanent this year as it’s set to expire in 2016.

© 2015 Gannett News Service