Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D- Great Neck) has been conferring with mayors and school superintendents in her state assembly district to get input for a legislative package she will propose to her party leadership in Albany that would offer financial relief to municipalities and school districts preparing for the impact of a 2 percent property tax cap.
One of the ideas Schimel said she would propose is a variation on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s tax reform plan, with the 2 percent cap on local tax levies to be activated if school budgets fail to pass on a first ballot. She said she sees an opportunity to influence the planned alterations for local fiscal landscapes since the terms of Cuomo’s cap plan hasn’t yet been drafted.
“There’s no bill. Everything is spin now,” Schimel said. “I will be talking to our leadership about whether they’d be willing to fashion a property tax cap based on what I’m hearing.”
What she’s hearing, from mayors and school superintendents alike, is that the imposition of a 2 percent tax cap would be a recipe for financial disaster.
“We’re in dire straits now but we’ve got to get out of this hole so we’re not facing the same situation a year from now,” said Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth, when he spoke about the discussions with Schimel at last week’s school board meeting.
“We feel we absolutely cannot accept such a proposition. We have debt service that has to be accounted for and a staff of 21 police officers who are under contract to receive salary increases,” said Sands Point Mayor Leonard Wurzel on the proposed tax cap.
Another focal point of Schimel’s meetings with local officials is unfunded mandates, things that the state requires from municipalities and school districts which those respective entities have to pay for themselves.
“They said they must have some form of mandate relief. When you’re destined for a tax cap, you heading for a big collision down the line,” Schimel said.
She proposes seeking relief from such mandates in line with recommendations from the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials.
NYCOM’s principal recommendations include a one-year freeze on salaries for all state, local government and school district employees. Based on a NYCOM survey of 61 cities outside of New York City, it estimates that such a wage freeze would yield $4.2 million in savings.
Another prime element of Schimel’s prospective legislation, based on feedback she’s receiving, would be a mandatory annual contribution of 3 percent from all public employees to their pension funds and some level of contribution to their respective health plans as well.
“We’re trying to get everybody to contribute a little,” Bierwirth said. “Our feeling is that we need to get out of this short-term so we’re going to be in this long-term.”
NYCOM recommends reinstating the 3 percent pension contribution that had been in place statewide prior to 1998.
“I think all public employees should be contributing to a step-funded pension for the entire time that that are working,” said Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Thomas Dolan.
NYCOM also recommends minimum employee contribution of 10 percent for individual health insurance coverage, a 25 percent contribution rate for family coverage and a 25 percent contribution from retirees who have coverage.
“The unfunded mandates solution just seems such common sense. There’s no state aid. We get it,” Dolan said. “We have to minimize taxes. We get it. Therefore, release us from the mandates we have.”
Dolan also noted that for the past five years, all school districts have been required to have an internal auditor, an external auditor and an internal claims auditor, a requirement which he said is redundant.
Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said he was encouraged by Schimel’s effort to solicit opinions from officials in her district.
“It’s always encouraging when you have your elected representatives wanting to hear what you have to say,” Kreitzman said.
Now Schimel faces the daunting task of trying to develop a consensus among the Democratic leadership in Albany. But she’s also reaching across the aisle and into the other state legislative chamber to seek support from newly elected state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), who is widely perceived as an advocate for local government control.
Schimel and Martins are now co-sponsoring legislation in a rare act of bi-partisanship these days to amend the empowerment bill Cuomo crafted before he became governor, a bill easing the requirements for dissolving small municipalities.
“He’s on the other side and he’s been a mayor,” Schimel said of Cuomo. “He understands a lot of the issues.”
