Most respondents prefer method that reduces levy based on income

by Rick Karlin
Capitol bureau

ALBANY — A “circuit breaker” that would limit how much of their income people pay toward property taxes is more popular among New Yorkers than a tax cap, according to a Siena Research Institute poll released on Monday.

“When voters were pushed to say ‘you can only have one, which should it be?’ they go for the circuit breaker,” said institute spokesman Steven Greenberg.

The poll found 75 percent favor a circuit breaker, even it it means raising income taxes on those who earn more than $1 million annually.

At the same time, 69 percent supported Gov. David Paterson’s plan to cap property tax increases at 4 percent per year — down from the 74 percent last month who said they agreed that a cap “is necessary to help those who have seen property tax bills increase by 7 percent per year over the last five years.”

Asked to choose one, 52 percent favored the circuit breaker.

Critics of the tax cap welcomed the newest research, while supporters stressed that any change still needs to start with a limit on school spending.

“We’re thinking about getting some hats that say ’75 percent,’ ” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, which, along with teacher unions, has pushed for a circuit breaker and higher income taxes for the rich. He was alluding to the “74″ baseball caps that tax cap supporters wore following the initial poll.

“Only the so-called ‘circuit breaker’ approach will actually lower anyone’s taxes,” said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party.

Alan Lubin, executive vice president at the New York State United Teachers, the state’s largest teachers’ union, agreed. NYSUT has been a leading opponent of a tax cap.

“A tax cap would only slow the growth of property tax increases in parts of the state, while a circuit breaker would provide real tax relief — in the form of rebates — to New Yorkers who need it most, based on their ability to pay,” said Lubin.

Under a circuit breaker, homeowners would get an income tax reduction based on the percentage of their earnings that goes toward property taxes.

For example, one bill offered last year by Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, and Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, would create a circuit breaker of between 6 percent and 8 percent, depending on income and where a homeowner lives. If he paid more than that in property taxes, he would get an income tax credit worth 70 percent of the overage.

It wouldn’t apply to those earning more than $250,000. The STAR school tax reductions would remain but additional rebates would be canceled under the plan.

Members of the Republican-controlled Senate have hinted they may come back this summer to pass some version of Paterson’s proposed 4 percent cap, while the Democratic Assembly has long pushed for a circuit breaker.

Paterson administration officials reiterated their desire to have a cap in place before employing a circuit breaker or other measures.

“You can’t do the circuit breaker until you get the cap first,” said Tom Suozzi, the Nassau County executive and former gubernatorial candidate who chaired the governor’s Property Tax Commission.

To do otherwise, he said, would amount to a replay of the STAR program started a decade ago. While that provides homeowners with some tax breaks, it did nothing to slow skyrocketing school spending, which a property tax cap could do, he said.
“The commission’s view on this has always been that the circuit breaker has always been a very desirable feature but there are many complexities that have to be worked out,” said John Reid, the commission’s executive director.

Among those complexities: how to pass a millionaire’s income tax hike that would likely be needed to fund the circuit breaker. While Assembly Democrats aren’t against raising taxes on those who earn more than $1 million annually, Senate Republicans oppose the idea.

Republicans, though, have pushed for another type of tax relief that New Yorkers favor — on gas.

If they had to choose, poll respondents said they would support lifting the state’s 32-cent-per-gallon gas tax over a property tax cap by a 49-45 percent margin.

Despite all the ideas that have been floated, New Yorkers are pessimistic that much will be done. Sixty-four percent were either “not very” or “not at all confident” that the governor and Legislature will address the property tax issue this year, while 32 percent were “somewhat,” or “very confident” that they would.

NYSUT has launched a TV ad campaign in favor for the circuit breaker approach as a means to reform the New York State Property tax crisis.

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