LIA to state: Make property tax cap permanent

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The region’s largest business group wants New York state officials to make the property tax cap permanent.

The Long Island Association’s president and CEO, Kevin Law, is urging the state officials to make the permanent extension of the tax cap a legislative priority.

According to an LIA study that analyzed property tax trends and projections, “property taxes on Long Island would have been likely to increase almost 60 percent in the next 10 years without the cap in place.”

The report went on to say “if the cap were not extended, the average residential property tax in Suffolk County in 2025 was projected to increase $3,796 annually, while in Nassau County it would have jumped $4,222 (a regional difference of $4,004, or 58 percent, annually).”

Law said in the letter addressed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Speaker of the Assembly Carl Heastie, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins,  that “municipalities, including school districts, which are the biggest driver of property taxes, have by and large responded to the cap with prudent budgeting, more efficiency and restrained spending.”

The region’s municipalities “have learned to do more with less,” the letter went on to say. “Bottom line – the cap is working.”

A permanent tax cap might also further the state’s social justice agenda, components of which might garner support from the business community, Law said in the letter.