There is no more pressing issue than School Tax Reform; it is the single most important issue that must be dealt with by the New York State Assembly. Assemblyman Greg Ball has been working across the aisle to enact a meaningful, long-term and comprehensive solution to this crisis.

Greg Ball has been working within the district and throughout the entire region with school administrators, teachers, school board members and tax reformers in a monthly School Property Tax Reform Task Force. A number of the group's recommendations are now before the legislature. The legislation supported by this bipartisan group is geared towards protecting seniors and working families from unfair and excessive taxation.

Part of the solution is the "three-legged stool approach" advocated by Responsible New York, the New York State Property Tax Reform Coalition, the Tax Foundation, the nonpartisan Hudson Valley Property Tax Reform Task Force, the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, the liberal Alliance for Quality Education, and endorsed by the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Property Tax Relief chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.

Assemblyman Ball's plan to alleviate this crisis includes:

School Property Tax Cap
* Begins to limit out-of-control state spending
* Limits tax levy increases to 2.5% or 120% the rate of inflation, whichever is lower
* Allows school districts to continue to vote every year on their school budgets-55% of voters
* Gives school districts incentives to propose increases of less then the cap and allows "banking" of unused cap space
* Freezes school taxes for seniors at age 65
* Provides enhanced STAR recipients and the disabled with a property tax freeze
 
STAR 'Circuit Breaker'
* Provides immediate relief to taxpayers
* Ties a portion of property taxes to income so taxes are more fair and based on one's ability to pay
* Households with incomes below $90,000 and pay property taxes over five percent of their gross income would receive a 25 percent refundable credit for property taxes that exceed five percent of their gross income.
* Taxpayers with household incomes between $90,000 and $125,000 would receive a 20 percent refundable credit for any property taxes over six percent of their gross income.
* Those earning between $125,000 and $250,000 would receive a 15 percent refundable credit for any property taxes over seven percent of their gross income.
* Over 54,000 residents of my district will see their property taxes decrease, putting more money in their pockets to help spur the economy and create jobs.
* Restores funding to Senior STAR gutted by the 2008 budget

Unfunded mandate release provisions
* Provides immediate relief to local municipalities
* Bans new legislative and regulatory mandates
* Establishes greater accountability for existing mandates
* Provides for greater state support to address the costs of salaries, pensions, and healthcare
* Repealing Wicks law requirements imposed on construction projects
* Consolidation and pooling of certain paperwork requirements and insurance costs
* Creating the Office of State Inspector General for Education to investigate financial abuse and misconduct in schools

Greg Ball is a budget hawk and has voted against every unnecessary tax increase that has come across his desk. He has made a name for himself as a fierce advocate for eliminating deficit spending and fighting against all tax increase, state and local.