Public Hearing on Overriding Tax Cap April 1

At Thursday's village board meeting, trustees set a date for a public hearing on a local law to authorize a property tax levy in excess of the limit established in general municipal law Section 3-c so as to permit the village to override the state imposed property tax levy cap for the fiscal year commencing June 1, 2013.

According to trustee Dennis Donnelly, although the date was set the board is striving to avoid the override.

"We set the date last week to hold a public hearing on overriding the cap scheduled for April 1," he said. The board passed the local law to allow the board to override the cap without penalty last year but wound up not having to override.

On June 30, 2012 Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill limiting property tax increases to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Cuomo called the cap "a critical step toward New York's economic recovery" and county executive Ed Mangano said the cap is "long overdue" for Nassau residents and considered Cuomo's move "among the most important accomplishments" of the governor's first six months.

Finance chair Andrew Cavanaugh first suggested a local law be established last March as a "fail safe" because it would protect the village from penalties if it were to exceed the 2 percent limit, even if just fractionally.

"It is certainly the intention of the finance committee and certainly of my colleagues on this board to stay under that 2 percent tax cap levy," Cavanaugh said during talks a year ago.

Trustees' thoughts on the matter haven't changed as they still hope to stay below the 2 percent cap, which is really a cap on the tax levy - not your tax bill. The tax levy, according to village counsel Gary Fishberg, is the total amount of taxes the village can raise through its taxation.

Final budget numbers will be revealed at the April 1 organizational meeting, to be held at 8 p.m. in the village hall board room. "If we can pass a budget which does not exceed the cap we will cancel the public hearing on the override," Donnelly said.