ALBANY – Gov. Pataki is proposing a $230 million cut in local property taxes starting next year – when he’s expected to seek re-election.
Pataki’s “Co-STAR” proposal, to be outlined in his seventh annual State of the State Address tomorrow, would eventually cut property taxes for some 700,000 senior citizens and farmers when fully phased in over five years, according to the governor’s office.
While Pataki billed the proposal as “dramatic,” it would actually cost the state only $50 million in lost tax revenues, beginning in the 2002-3 fiscal year, his aides conceded.
New York City residents, large numbers of whom live in apartments, would see slight savings under the Co-STAR program through a special reduction in the city’s personal income tax.
Aides to Pataki said the Co-STAR program would eventually save married senior couples in the city about $120 annually, and individual seniors $60 a year.
“With Co-STAR, we can build on the tremendous success of our STAR program by providing county property tax relief directly to those who need it most – our seniors and farmers,” Pataki said in a statement.
The original STAR program, designed to eventually cut local property taxes by $2.6 billion, was passed at Pataki’s urging in 1997 and will be fully phased in this year.
The Co-STAR proposal is expected to be a highlight of the State of the State Address, a traditional event in which governors lay out their priorities for the coming year.
Pataki’s speech is expected to warn of a possible slowdown in the national economy, and urge spending restraints when a new budget is adopted later this year.
That would represent something of a course correction for the Republican governor, who has backed new budgets in recent years that have grown by double and even triple the rate of inflation.
Republican and Democratic budget experts also said they expected Pataki to forgo a huge budget increase in an effort to build a state surplus for next year, when he is expected to seek re-election.
Details of Pataki’s proposed spending plan – expected to total about $80 billion – will be outlined later this month.