Taxes a hot topic with county officials

The Nassau County Village Officials Association (NCVOA) hosted a seminar in Williston Park on Jan. 10 — and the state’s new tax levy cap law that went into effect in January was a hot topic of discussion. Dozens of mayors, trustees and representatives of villages from Nassau and Suffolk counties were in attendance at the seminar. Forty eight of L.I.’s 64 villages were represented.

Executive Director, New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM), Peter Baynes, addressed the crowd to discuss the ins and outs of this new law. Baynes said the tax-cap is the, “most important piece of legislation enacted into law impacting local governments in the last 50 years — unfortunately.”

The tax-cap limits the annual growth of property taxes levied by local governments and school districts to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is smaller. The cap applies to all counties, cities, towns and villages outside New York City, as well as fiscally independent school districts. It also applies to the property tax levies of special districts established to finance fire departments, libraries, sewer and water systems and other purposes.

Nora McCabe, assistant director for Policy and Research of the Office of the State Comptroller made a presentation to those in attendance explaining what the new tax-cap law entails and certain points to look out for. “I’m happy to be up here and I’m sure you’re not going to shoot the messenger,” she joked during the start of her presentation. Prior to beginning her presentation, McCabe reiterated that Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli did not pass this tax cap law, but their office did want to lend a helping hand to local governments.

“It became obvious to us that there would be no central agency that was involved in helping the local governments figure out the law, and to provide the guidance for the law,” McCabe said, “and so we took that role upon ourselves, even though we knew that we were sort of walking on landmines.”