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Long Island: Governor Cuomo Releases Report Detailing Property Tax Cap Success

Written by Long Island News & PR  |  04. June 2015

Long Island, NY - June 3, 2015 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today released a report detailing the success of the property tax cap in delivering tax relief for New York families and businesses. In addition, the Governor traveled to Seaford, New York in Nassau County to urge the State Legislature to extend the two percent property tax cap this legislative session.

"The tax cap has succeeded in taming out-of-control property tax increases throughout this state and it must be extended to ensure property taxpayers continue to be protected from the crushing burden of skyrocketing tax increases," Governor Cuomo said. "I urge the Legislature to act this session to keep the cap and continue the progress we have made to deliver tax relief to all New Yorkers."

The property tax cap is one in a series of tax relief initiatives pursued by Governor Cuomo over the last several years in an effort to change New York's "tax capital" mentality and provide much needed relief to businesses and homeowners. As a result of the Governor's initiatives, middle class tax rates are at their lowest since 1953, the corporate tax rate is at its lowest since 1968, and the manufacturing tax rate is at its lowest since 1917.

Before the Tax Cap
For years, local property taxes in New York have been among the highest in the country, negatively affecting New York’s economic competitiveness and the quality of life for its residents. Between 2000 and 2010, property taxes grew at an unsustainable rate - more than double inflation. Additionally, in 2010, Nassau County had the second highest median property tax bill in the nation, behind only Westchester County.

Success of the Property Tax Cap
As a result of the cap, New York’s property taxes have been held to an average growth rate of approximately two percent during the past three years, less than half the rate of growth over the previous 10 years.

Controlling the rate of property tax growth results in enormous savings for property taxpayers, and the impact grows over time:

  • Through the first three years of the cap, the typical property tax payer has saved more than $800, compared to if taxes had continued to grow at the previous growth rate. 
  • If the trend continues, by 2017, the typical taxpayer will have saved more than $2,100 in local property taxes as a result of the cap.

New York’s cap has slowed property tax growth for Long Island by 62%, comparing the 5.6% average annual growth rate of the decade prior to the cap (2000-2010) to the 2.1% average annual proposed growth for the first three years of the tax cap.

On a county-by-county basis, the highest estimated average savings in just the first three years are in Westchester ($2,223), Rockland ($2,042), Nassau ($1,923) and Suffolk ($1,588). These counties have both high median property taxes, and are in regions that experienced particularly high property tax growth rates in the ten years preceding the cap. The impact of the tax cap grows with each year, and by the fifth year the average taxpayer in Nassau will have saved more than $5,000 and the average taxpayer in Suffolk will have saved more than $4,000.

Long Island is as follows (for a statewide breakdown, view page 8 of the tax report):

County

Estimated Cumulative Savings -
3 Years

Estimated Cumulative Savings -
5 Years

Nassau

$1,923

$5,063

Suffolk

$1,588

$4,180

In the first three years, more than 80 percent of all local governments and school districts have been compliant with the tax cap. In the third year, voters passed cap-compliant budgets in over 97 percent of all school districts.

 

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