|
Stop Talking and Vote
Dear Editor:
The time for gathering data is long past the property tax cap is what we need now. Sandra Galef and the state legislature should stop talking and vote.
Sandra Galef's public pronouncements don't match up with her performance in the Assembly.
On June 3, I hand delivered a letter to Assemblywoman Galef's Ossining office. I demanded that the Assembly remain in session, and not adjourn for the summer, until it finally voted upon property tax cap legislation. Mrs. Galef has not responded to my letter. However, she has written Letters to the Editors in this paper that continues to leave unanswered the following questions:
1. Why, during her 5 years as the Chair of the Assembly Committee on Real Property Taxation, has Mrs. Galef been unable to get property tax cap legislation to the Assembly floor for a vote?
2. Why did Mrs. Galef provide the Assembly with an excuse for not voting on a tax cap by going along with a delay of more than 2 weeks of the report of the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief?
3. Knowing that in 2007 New York State doled out $353 million in property tax rebates to people who did not pay their property taxes, why didn't Mrs. Galef do something to recover this money? Why has this loop hole not been closed?
4. What assurances do New Yorkers have that rebates will not continue to be given to property tax scofflaws? With a massive hole in New York's budget, when will Mrs. Galef and Mr. Silver take action to recover the $353 million that the state desperately needs?
5. On Sunday June 8, the Journal News reported that unpaid school taxes rose in Putnam County by 9.5%. This $13 million burden has been transferred to the county. In the article Putnam County Finance Director William Carlin said the climb in unpaid property taxes was due to "a combination of higher school taxes and people having more difficulty paying". As committee chair, what action will Mrs. Galef take to help Putnam meet this new financial burden?
6. When will the Assembly finally set a date for a vote on property tax cap legislation?
Mrs. Galef has spent a lifetime in public service. It is disappointing and unacceptable that she has and continues to go along with the business as usual practices of the Assembly. To hold a Property Tax Cap forum knowing that the Assembly has not and will not set a date for a vote is a sham and pandering of the worst kind.
Too much is at stake! We are facing financial hardship that has been unseen since the Great Depression. The evidence is overwhelming; the people's demand for property tax relief deafening. The time to set a date to vote on a property tax cap is now! Mrs. Galef and the members of the Assembly should go back to Albany and finally vote on capping property taxes.
William Gouldman
Republican Party Candidate
for Assembly
| 
