Issue Position: Unfunded Mandates & Property Tax Relief

Issue Position

I continue to co-sponsor legislation in the Senate to end the practice of unfunded state mandates on local governments and school districts. Specifically this legislation would ban the imposition of any future unfunded state mandates on local governments and school districts that are not accompanied by state funding to localities to pay for delivering the required programs and services.

It's a commonsense, straightforward message: if the state mandates a local program or service, the state must pay for it. No more passing the buck to counties, cities, school districts, towns or villages.

The state enacted the local property tax cap in 2011 with a promise to localities and school districts to roll back the heavy burden of unfunded state mandates. The property tax cap has been successful and provided local taxpayers with billions of dollars in savings. I strongly support making the cap permanent.

Nevertheless, New York State has not lived up to Governor Cuomo's original promise to lift the existing burden on local governments and local property taxpayers -- that must happen in order for the tax cap to achieve its No. 1 goal, which is to ensure a future of property tax cuts, not just a slower rate of growth.

So we should, at least, immediately put an end to any future unfunded state mandates.

Furthermore this legislation would mark, if enacted, a real beginning to the true transformation of the state-local partnership that's needed. The state has taken some important mandate relief actions over the past several years, including long-term pension reform and a phased-in takeover of the growth in local Medicaid costs. But it hasn't been enough. Mandate relief has to be a top state priority. Localities and school districts facing tough fiscal challenges still have their hands tied by too many unfunded state mandates.

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