Well, wouldn’t you know it.

The biggest winners in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tax-freeze program are homeowners in Scarsdale, the Lower Hudson Valley’s richest municipality, who received the highest average checks statewide in the first year of the property-tax rebate program.

Scarsdale’s average tax-freeze rebate checks were higher based on the town’s preponderance of town residences valued at more than $1 million, and higher tax bills that are attached to such homes. In addition, Scarsdale’s tax-cap limit for 2014 was 3.9 percent, almost double the state average.

The program also made flat-rate rebates to co-op owners, based on the average check in each municipality. That favored communities such as Eastchester, where Garth Road co-ops have a Scarsdale postal address. Eastchester co-op rebates were five times larger than in Peekskill.

“Any tax-relief for co-ops is welcome,” said Barry Kramer, who lives in a Garth Road co-op in Eastchester. “It will help keep co-ops affordable.”

The tax-freeze program is part of Cuomo’s campaign to rein in local spending through the state’s tax-cap legislation, which limits tax-levy increases to the inflation rate, with exceptions for capital spending. In 2014, the average allowable increase was 2.2 percent, according to the state Comptroller’s office.

In 2014, 2.3 million New York homeowners received $222 million in rebate checks.

Homeowners who qualify for the state’s STAR tax-relief program received checks for 2014 if their school districts won voter approval for budgets that fell within the tax cap. The check was equal to what the tax increase would have been, if the school board had proposed a budget that went right up the tax-cap limit.

Like the state STAR rebate program, the tax-freeze favors New York City suburbs, where property values are the highest, and property tax bills are among the nation’s highest. Scarsdale’s average checks for $471 were by far the highest statewide, followed by Nassau County’s Syosset district, at $357. Eastchester was third, at $336. There were 138 upstate school districts with an average tax-freeze check of less than $25.

“The intent of the tax freeze is to provide relief to overburdened taxpayers both through the rebate and by encouraging municipalities to make the necessary structural changes, cut costs, and stay within the tax cap,” said Cuomo spokesman Geoff Gloak. “This program uses a straight percentage on property tax bills and was always intended to be a two-year approach to help foster structural change.”

But E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for State Policy, said it made no sense for the state to reimburse homeowners for property-taxes they agreed to pay when passing their school budgets.

“It’s a poorly conceived gimmick that’s a huge waste of state funds,” said McMahon.

The average Scarsdale check was more than triple the average rebate check issued in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, a Tax Watch analysis found. The smallest average checks went to homeowners in the city of Peekskill, where the average check was just $52.

In Putnam, the average tax-freeze check ranged from $75 in Garrison to $127 in Brewster, while Rockland’s average checks ranged from $88 in South Orangetown to $253 in Clarkstown.

The tax-freeze checks have provided an added incentive for policymakers to propose budgets within the cap. None in the lower Hudson Valley sought to override the cap in 2014, and only Edgemont and Rye in Westchester are considering doing so in 2015.

In 2014, the tax freeze applied only to school districts. This year, it’s for school districts and all municipal and county governments. The program ends in 2016, with rebates to be issued only for municipal and county tax-levy increases.

The tax-freeze checks for co-operative apartments resulted from a policy that was a departure from the state’s property-tax system, which has based taxes — and exemptions — on a percentage of your property’s value.

That became problematic for co-ops because residents own shares in the co-operative, which is taxed as an entire building. The co-op then divvies up the tax-bill, based on how many shares an owner controls.

To address the issue, the state opted to pay all co-op owners a flat-rate in their tax jurisdiction, equal to 60 percent of the average tax-freeze check there. In Eastchester, the average was $336, so the owner/occupant of any co-operative there was to receive a check for $202 — whether they owned the Cragswold unit that sold for $575,000 or the studio on Garth Road that went for $71,000.

Meanwhile, in Peekskill, co-op owners live in a city school district where the average rebate check was $52. Those co-op owners were to receive checks for $31, whether they lived in the two-bedroom on the market today for $200,000 or the one-bedroom for sale for $54,900.

© 2015 The Journal News