To address rising property taxes, Governor Paterson has been pushing for a property tax cap that would severely limit local spending and have a devastating impact on public schools. Property taxes are a real issue, but Governor Paterson’s ‘tax cap’ plan is the wrong solution.
That’s why Education Voters of New York has teamed up with the Working Families Party and education advocates across the state to fight what the New York Times called “an election year gimmick.”
The tax cap scheme has been tried in other states, and the results were disastrous for public schools. In California, Illinois, and Massachusetts, tax caps led to laid off teachers, bigger class sizes, and lower test scores. Inequities between school districts were exacerbated: wealthy neighborhoods overrode budgets that were too limiting but other districts could not afford to do so. In New York, given the already massive disparity between rich and poor districts, the results of a tax cap would be even more punishing – particularly during an economic decline when the state will not be able to make up for lost local revenues.
And why is this a gimmick? Because a tax cap will not even lower property taxes. And because it doesn’t do anything to control the causes of high property taxes: insufficient state aid for education and rising costs like fuel and healthcare that schools themselves can’t control. Rather than rely on income taxes, New York’s public schools rely more on local property taxes than every other state other than Texas.
Governor Paterson’s bill passed in the Senate, but can be stopped in the Assembly. Thousands of New Yorkers have already sent Albany a message: vote NO on Paterson’s ‘tax cap’ scheme. The legislature will reconvene for a special session on August 19th. We need to keep the pressure on.
To address rising property taxes, Governor Paterson has been pushing for a property tax cap that would severely limit local spending and have a devastating impact on public schools. Property taxes are a real issue, but Governor Paterson’s ‘tax cap’ plan is the wrong solution.
That’s why Education Voters of New York has teamed up with the Working Families Party and education advocates across the state to fight what the New York Times called “an election year gimmick.”
The tax cap scheme has been tried in other states, and the results were disastrous for public schools. In California, Illinois, and Massachusetts, tax caps led to laid off teachers, bigger class sizes, and lower test scores. Inequities between school districts were exacerbated: wealthy neighborhoods overrode budgets that were too limiting but other districts could not afford to do so. In New York, given the already massive disparity between rich and poor districts, the results of a tax cap would be even more punishing – particularly during an economic decline when the state will not be able to make up for lost local revenues.
And why is this a gimmick? Because a tax cap will not even lower property taxes. And because it doesn’t do anything to control the causes of high property taxes: insufficient state aid for education and rising costs like fuel and healthcare that schools themselves can’t control. Rather than rely on income taxes, New York’s public schools rely more on local property taxes than every other state other than Texas.
Governor Paterson’s bill passed in the Senate, but can be stopped in the Assembly. Thousands of New Yorkers have already sent Albany a message: vote NO on Paterson’s ‘tax cap’ scheme. The legislature will reconvene for a special session on August 19th. We need to keep the pressure on.
By Glynda C. Carr, New York State Director