New York Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, R-East Northport, is pushing to make the make the state’s property tax cap permanent in 2018.
The Republican lawmaker said Monday that the tax cap proposal should take priority during the next legislative session arguing that keeping the plan would send a signal that the state is pro-business. He said the tax cap has saved taxpayers $41 billion since it was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011, while also keeping municipal budgets in line.
“It has slammed the door on the massive, double-digit property tax increases of the past, and brought certainty to businesses and to taxpayers,” said Flanagan in a statement. “Making the property tax cap permanent will be an engine for economic growth.”
The property tax cap, which limits tax levy increases for localities to the lesser of 2% or rate of inflation based on the consumer price index, was last renewed for four years in 2015. The proposal will be up for renewal again in 2019 unless the legislature enacts a permanent measure.
The allowable tax increase under the cap rose from 0.68% in 2017 to 1.84% in 2018, which Moody’s Investors Service said in July was a
