Yesterday at the Hofstra University Student Center, Governor Eliot Spitzer spoke with labor leaders on Long Island. In his remarks that appeared in Newsday, he called for a look into capping property taxes by saying: “We are going to have to figure out how we can solve that problem - whether we put caps on those increases or not is something we are going to have to debate, because I will not stand for the notion that we at the state are finally doing what we have to do to cut the property tax burden merely to see localities pushing back the other way.”

Saying he wants to debate property tax cuts and doing it are two very different things. The Minority Assembly Conference has a solution, and I am proud to have sponsored the Property Taxpayer Protection Act that would help to cap property taxes. So, the governor has a choice; rhetoric is great but it only gets you so far. If he is serious on debating the merits of capping property taxes, he should use his influence to leverage the Majority in the State Assembly to get our bill out of committee and onto the floor, where the true merits of helping all New Yorkers with a property tax cap can be debated.

The Property Taxpayer Protection Act, would provide homeowners and businesses with significant and lasting relief. The legislation would eliminate unfunded state mandates to school districts and municipalities, and limit school district tax levies to four percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. In addition, the Property Taxpayer Protection Act would:

• Provide 100 percent reimbursement to schools for costs incurred from 4th and 8th grade Math and English tests;
• Create the Office of State Inspector General for Education to investigate financial abuse, corruption and misconduct in schools;
• Consolidate school district paperwork requirements, saving time and money;
• Support local option insurance pooling to cut costs;
• Require the state to take over the costs of all optional Medicaid services within five years, saving $10 billion;
• Provide money to counties to buy software for Medicaid fraud investigations; and
• Provide financial incentives and other assistance to localities to consolidate local government services.

Governor Spitzer, we are ready to debate this issue now. The ball is now in your court.