"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Governor Endorses Tax Cap, The Battle Begins

Governor Paterson has given a thumbs up to the tax cap proposed by the special commission headed by Tom Suozzi.

The Governor's support of this proposal will set the stage for the first confrontation between him and the legislative body, namely Sheldon Silver and his Assembly who take the side of the unions and not the property taxpayers of New York State.

This is why Silver supports the union and not the property taxpayers of this state.
For voters outside New York City, property taxes have been a burning concern for years, promoting increased calls for the state to take more extreme measures to curb the growth.
"Any action that we take must guarantee that schoolchildren across the state will have the resources necessary to get a quality education," Mr. Silver said in a statement yesterday.

That's the position taken by the state's largest teachers union, a major force in Albany, which has vowed to pressure lawmakers not to approve a cap.

The Senate's position is to wait for the Assembly and the Comptroller's position is simply saying New York State cannot afford to make up any differences in funding.

This is the most pro-taxpayer report that Albany has seen in some time," a special adviser to the commission, Robert Ward, who is a researcher at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, said.
This piece of the article provides more insight into the circuit breaker piece.
The commission is also recommending that the state channel $2 billion that it now spends on a program that provides exemptions and rebates to homeowners toward a "circuit breaker" that would give grants to homeowners when their taxes consume a certain percentage of their income.
If that is the case, then what are the legislative leaders worried about, support the taxpayers and pass the legislation that will be proposed by the Governor. This will be interesting to hear how Addie Jenne Russell decides here, the choice is clear - property taxpayers or Assembly Speaker Silver and the unions. Union endorsements are key for her victory, without them she cannot win the race.

For the full text of the article click here

1 comment:

ConcernedCitizen said...

If the tax cap works, communities will now have to increase the struggle over priorities. The community will be broken into small groups. "Elitist" will band together to lobby the board for academics. "Jocks" will want less academics and more sports. "Artists" will defend the necessity of their skills. Shop and Homemaking took their financial bullet years ago when the State gave them the new fancy names of Technology and Home and Life Skills as they reduced their budgets and got rid of tools and ovens. Language arts will still struggle as China makes English a requirement in every school in an effort to make them the business power of the world.

The community will have to bury their hatchets and join local Boards in the effort to make real decisions.

In the mean time, our Republican candidate for Senate will go after Darrel for the high price of gas which perhaps, thanks to Bush and Cheney, at this point is untouchable.

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