Tax cap panel shunts Big 4 cities
ALBANY — Residents in Buffalo and three other cities in New York would be barred from taking part in a proposed program to cap property taxes, but the mayors of the cities would assume control of the school districts, a state commission recommended Monday.
The state Commission on Property Tax Relief, created this year to address soaring property tax levies, also called for a sharp increase in the mainstreaming of special-education students into the general student population to control expenses and an investigation of districts that have higher-than-average numbers of students in the expensive programs.
The new recommendations affecting the state’s Big Four districts and statewide specialed programs joined dozens of previously proposed nonbinding ideas by the panel, including an annual cap on property taxes, mandatory school district mergers and reductions in employee benefits and union-backed collective bargaining.
School districts in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, which, unlike other districts, do not put their annual school funding proposals to a vote by residents, would not participate in the tax cap, according to the commission. The panel earlier this year proposed an annual cap that puts a 4 percent ceiling on tax increases, or 120 percent of the inflation rate, whichever is less.
Commission members said property tax increases have not been as high in the Big Four cities as in other districts, in part because they get such a large share of school funding from the state. Buffalo, for instance, gets 80 percent of its funding from Albany.
The commission recommended an end to mandatory annual funding floors by the schools that now do not take into account decreasing pupil enrollments. Moreover, capping taxes would affect not just schools in the Big Four, but city services that are funded from the same pool of tax revenues.
The proposals face a steep uphill climb. The idea of a tax cap has been opposed by a powerful teachers union, as well as by Assembly Democrats. The Republican-led Senate, which has backed the cap, is turning Democratic come January.
Still, Paterson said Monday, “we must cap property taxes.”
A major point of contention will be how to control the costs of special education. Paterson said New York tops the nation in such funding but ranks 38th in graduation rates for those students. Commission Chairman Thomas R. Suozzi said that over the years, schools have vastly expanded who is eligible to participate. So in some districts, he said, nearly one-quarter of students are classified as eligible for special ed, which leads to expensive programs.
Instead, Suozzi said, students with mild problems should stay in general classes but get extra help. He said that 12.5 percent of the state’s students are in special ed but that 27 percent of the state’s education spending is for special ed.
