ALBANY – An audit of counties and how they fared under the state’s two percent tax cap ceiling shows that Ulster and Dutchess were the only Mid-Hudson counties to stay under the cap for all four years since its implementation.
The report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s Office shows that further to the south, Putnam and Westchester also stayed under the cap all four years.
Orange County exceeded the cap one year, while Sullivan and Rockland
exceeded the cap for three years.
The actual tax cap for each county can vary slightly, depending on several factors.
“New York taxes are too high but in Ulster County we’re doing something about it because taxpayers need help,” said Ulster County Executive Michael Hein. “We know what that means for taxpayers, for the people trying to make ends meet, in Ulster County they understand that our county government has been lowering property taxes and we were one of the only counties in the entire State of New York that was able to accomplish this over the course of this period of time since the beginning of tax cap in 2012.”
“New Yorkers remain among the highest taxed in the nation, but Dutchess County is doing its best to reduce the burden where we can,” said County Executive Marcus Molinaro. “Despite the crushing burden of state imposed spending on local governments, we have led the way in shared services lowering the overall cost of government and produced budgets under the tax cap every year since its inception. In fact, the 2015 budget provides the largest tax levy reduction in 14 years and qualifies Dutchess property taxpayers to receive an additional rebate check this fall. We know we must do all we can to provide long-term sustainable relief and will keep up our efforts to improve efficiency and shrink the size and cost of government.”
The snapshot report by the comptroller said Mid-Hudson Valley counties had the lowest levy group from 2014 to 2015 at 0.34 percent. They remained well under the average levy limit of three percent.
