By Liz Giegerich [3]
New York State Senator Greg Ball stopped by Cortlandt’s monthly town board meeting last night to discuss the property tax cap, among other issues.
Cortlandt town officials used Republican New York State Senator Greg Ball’s visit to their town board meeting last night as an opportunity to ask him questions about Albany’s decisions that affect their town. Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi and council members asked him questions about the two percent property tax cap, cuts to Medicaid, hydrofracking and new grants.
The visit was Ball’s ninth stop on his Town Hall tour, which aims to visit all 22 towns in the state’s 40thDistrict that he represents.
Councilman John Sloan ended the evening’s questions with a criticism of the state’s imposed two percent property tax cap.
“This was Albany’s idea and it is left to us and the school district to thrash it out,” Sloan told Ball. “It is going to cause meaningful anguish and will have negative consequences,” he added, noting that it most likely means that jobs and programs will have to be cut. “I think that it is callous.”
Senator Greg Ball responded by saying that while Cortlandt may be a fiscally conservative municipality; others around the state are not.
“You have been making tough decisions, but that has not been happening in all places.”
Ball added: “Even if we fundametnally disagree, I’m here to help. We have to do something about taxes. We’re number one in all the wrong categories in this state. The dream of America home ownership is a nightmare. The tax structure is ripping communities apart. The property tax cap over time will bring an equilibrium.”
Ball invited the board members to be part of an advisory board that will work to oversee the tax cap. Supervisor Puglisi told the senator that she would like for Cortlandt to be used as an example, as it has “implemented its own tax cap,” with an average of a .6 percent raise in taxes each year for the last twenty years, she said. (READ MORE [4])
