The clock is ticking on Gov. Cuomo's plan to get a 2% property tax cap through the current legislature. Special interests, paricularly the teachers' unions, are in high gear to squash it. But there's a chance it will squeak through. I'm in total support of it, and here's why.
Property taxes in New York state, outside of New York City and a few upstate pockets, are out of control. There are a few reasons. Local government, based on hallowed home rule, is just plain inefficient. In Sullivan County, for example, we have eight school districts, each with a superintendent and associated overhead, that operate seven high schools and 14 middle and elementary schools, serving just under 11,000 students. We have 13 townships, each with a supervisor, township board, town clerk, road department, tax assessor and building department. In addition, we have three villages that also has a layer of government that costs money.
Two years ago, the NY legislature passed the NY Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act, to enable local government entities to consolidate to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. In two years since that bill passed, I haven't heard of any of Sullivan County's townships or school districts even holding discussions on merging, much less actually taking the steps to do so. The carrot approach embodied in that law, providing incentives for consolidation, led to absolutely nothing here.
So it's time for the stick. The property tax cap is going to be very painful on townships and school districts. But maybe, just maybe, it will force the 10,521 overlapping government entities in this state, including counties, towns, villages, school districts, special districts and public authorities, to look seriously at consolidation.
But inefficient, home rule oriented government is not the only reason for high property taxes. The state needs to lessen the burden of unfunded mandates on local government. That's going to require some very tough choices, particularly how we support some parts of our population like special needs children or the differently abled. New York has a long and cherished tradition of taking care of the less fortunate, and I do believe that if government overall becomes more efficient, that will free up resources to carry this tradition on.
Finally, the teachers' unions in this state have to end their self protective obstructionism to education reform. I'm a life long, genetic Democrat who's been a strong union supporter. But the opposition by the teachers unions to any school reform in NY state, particularly of tenure, has tested my beliefs. And many, many other Democrats I know also have little sympathy left for Randi Weingarten and the AFT. There's a great article by Joel Klein, the former Chancellor of the NY City Schools, in the June 2011 Atlantic about the the failure of American schools. Depsite study after study showing that the #1 factor in student performance is a good teacher, in New York state it is virtually impossible to get rid of poorly performing teachers, and there is strong union opposition to incentive programs to reward the most effective teachers.
When it comes to our schools, almost everyone agrees that something has to change. But that change, just like the consolidation of government, is unlikely until the money becomes so tight that politicians are forced to make real and tough choices.
The 2% property tax cap, in and of itself, it not the solution to decades of inefficient government and back room deal making in New York. What I hope it will do, though, is to force our politicians to seriously consider new approaches and new solutions. Heaven knows, nothing else seems to motivate change from 'business as usual'.
