SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are planning to cut $185 checks next year for thousands of Upstate homeowners who already qualify for school tax breaks.

All told, 2.5 million homeowners making $500,000 or less will get some sort of property tax rebate check next year from New York state. That’s because everyone who qualifies for the state’s School Tax Relief program will qualify in the first year.

The checks are part of a four-year, $3.1 billion massive property tax relief program that Albany leaders have agreed to in the final hours of this year’s legislative session.

By the fourth year, the program is estimated to cost $1.3 billion – with an average tax rebate of $530 to qualifying New York homeowners.

“Your property taxes will not actually drop at all as a result of this gambit,” E.J. McMahon, a frequent critic of similar tax rebate deals, wrote tonight. McMahon is a conservative Albany watchdog and works at the Empire Center.

But you could get a check.

It’s unclear exactly which of New York’s other taxpayers will foot the overall $3.1 billion bill for the rebates. Cuomo and lawmakers have postponed that tough budget decision until next year.

For now, they are simply going to set the new system in motion – a cash money promise that will come true for many homeowners in an election year.

“It is not the way I would like to see it done,” said Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, of the election-year, check-writing plan. “My understanding is that that’s the way the other house (the Senate) likes to do it.”

And mailing those checks cost money. In 2014, the state spent about $1.6 million mailing out 4 million refund checks instead of electronically transferring the money into bank accounts or creating a credit on income tax returns.

To qualify for this latest rebate program, your school district must stay under the state’s property tax cap. If the local school district raises taxes above the cap, none of the taxpayers in that district would get a rebate.

People who qualify for enhanced STAR also will qualify for this new rebate program.

Here’s more about how it will work:

In 2016, all 2.5 million homeowners who qualify for the state’s School Tax Relief program (and enhanced STAR) will get a check. Those living in the New York City suburbs will get $130. Everyone else – including Central New York homeowners – will get $185. (New York City homeowners are not eligible.)

Beginning in 2017, the rebate amounts will change and cut out any household with an income of $275,000 or more. That’s because in those last three years, the rebates will be tied to a percentage of your STAR credit. That percentage grows over the three years – thus making the individual checks larger over time.

At the same time, the rebates will be tied to income levels. That means the less money you make, the larger your rebate.

Assuming your income and STAR amount remains the same, those checks should grow from 2017 to 2019.

Lawmakers were planning to vote tonight on the proposal.

The School Tax Relief program began in 1997 as a way to help homeowners with rising school taxes, with the state reimbursing the school districts for the difference.

Those reimbursements have blossomed over the years, which state income taxpayers also pay. Those costs grew from $2.51 billion in 2001-02 to $3.36 billion this past year, a 34 percent increase.

© 2015 Syracuse Media Group