Flanagan: Make Property Tax Cap Permanent in 2018

Senate Majority Leader John J. Flanagan today called on the Governor and State Legislature to make the property tax cap permanent next session, a move that would send a strong signal that New York is firmly on the side of hardworking taxpayers and is committed to creating new jobs so middle-class families can have a future here.

The proposal is part of a pro-taxpayer, pro-business agenda that Flanagan first outlined last evening in an address to the Business Council of New York State's annual meeting in Bolton Landing.  As part of his remarks, he also committed to advancing a comprehensive regulatory reform package.

A signature initiative of the Senate Republican Conference, its members first achieved passage of the property tax cap in 2011. Since then, it has saved taxpayers $23 billion.

“Perhaps more than anything else we have done as a Legislature, the property tax cap has had an extraordinarily positive impact on hardworking taxpayers and their families.  It has slammed the door on the massive, double-digit property tax increases of the past, and brought certainty to businesses and to taxpayers.  By any objective measure, the property tax cap has been an enormous success,” Flanagan said.

Two years ago, the state renewed the property tax cap for an additional four years, but the possibility exists that a future Legislature could undo the measure and soak property taxpayers with new and higher taxes.

“It's time to take the next step on behalf of New York taxpayers.  Let's make the property tax cap permanent and do it in 2018,” Flanagan said.

Just as importantly, Flanagan noted, making the property tax cap permanent would also show that New York values job growth and economic progress, and can partner with the private sector to encourage job creation, not be an obstacle to it.

“Making the property tax cap permanent will be an engine for economic growth. Let's get it done,” he concluded.