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Senator Mike NozzolioNew York State Senator Mike Nozzolio announced Sunday a historic victory for the taxpayers of New York State, as the State Legislature adopted legislation he fought aggressively to enact that establishes the State’s first ever cap on property taxes.

The State Legislature also enacted corresponding legislation to provide comprehensive relief for schools and local governments from unfunded State mandates, which escalate local costs and force property taxes to increase.

“Every property owner…every business, big or small...every farm owner and manufacturer....every family and senior citizen ... for years, they have all had the same concern.... property taxes in New York State are much too high. Today, we have taken a tremendous step toward reversing the devastating impact property taxes have had on our residents and opened our State for private sector businesses to invest here once again and grow jobs,” said Nozzolio. “This property tax cap is one of the strongest in the Nation and shows that with the right leadership and by working together, we can take the necessary actions to change the direction of our State. I applaud Governor Cuomo for working in partnership with my colleagues and I to make this much-needed financial relief for our taxpayers a reality.”

This property tax cap, which is expected to be signed by the Governor within days, will limit property tax increases to 2 percent or less, based on the consumer price index. The bill also provides for the same cap to apply to taxes levied by municipal governments.

The tax cap legislation has been praised by pro-taxpayers, pro-jobs organizations across the State such as Unshackle Upstate, the Business Council, the New York Farm Bureau and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Forty four other states have some type of cap on property taxes and have seen positive results for homeowners and businesses.  After the cap was established in Massachusetts, the state went from having the 3rd highest property taxes in the nation down to the 33rd highest.

Nozzolio has fought aggressively to enact the property tax cap, along with corresponding mandate relief, and strongly supported the measure when it was adopted by the State Senate earlier this year. After the Senate enacted the tax cap proposal, he continued urging the State Assembly to support the measure and initiated an online petition at www.senatornozzolio.com calling on members of the Assembly to enact the cap. Tens of thousands of  New Yorkers signed the petition.

“New York's property owners simply cannot continue to pay property taxes that are 80 percent above the National average,” said Nozzolio. “Enacting property tax cap fulfills the commitment I made to the taxpayers of our region to get positive results on the issues that matter most to them- tax relief and private sector job growth.”

In conjunction with the property tax cap, the Senate also enacted sweeping mandate relief measures that would provide real cost savings of $127 million to local governments and school districts. The mandate relief legislation also establishes a New York State Mandate Relief Council that is authorized to determine if a statute or regulation is unsound, unduly burdensome, or costly and creates procedures for repealing unfunded mandates in both statute and regulation.

“From the very beginning, I have been adamant that any plan to cap property taxes must also include measures to identify and abolish unfunded State mandates. By combining the property tax cap with significant mandate relief, we have enacted a realistic, effective solution to help individuals and families stay in their homes and allow private sector businesses to create new jobs for our region,” said Nozzolio. “We must now build on this success and take the next steps to cut taxes, cut spending and continue to restore economic opportunity in New York State.”

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