Tax Cap? Poll This!

Well, what is real? Is there a mandate for a tax cap, or not?

 

The current debate over a school tax cap (which I’m told was still the topic of urgent talks between the Paterson administration and Senate Republican leaders as late as a few hours ago) was launched into hyperdrive earlier this month with a Siena College poll finding that 74 percent of New Yorkers favored a cap.

You may remember the Governor last week, surrounded by t-shirts numbered “74″ in honor of the obvious mandate uncovered by Siena. In good old fashioned what-passes-for-good-government-in-Albany fashion, Paterson barnstormed the state seeking passage of the cap sans hearings, debate, etc. etc.

But hold on there. There’s that poll, then there’s this poll:

…a Dutchess County tax reform group known as TREND on Sunday released its own poll showing that people by a 7:1 margin favored a “millionaire’s surtax” and that by a 57-26 percent margin, people would rather see a circuit breaker that limits how much school taxes they pay if offered a choice between that and a simple limit on what schools spend.

Let’s hope the legislature goes home tonight and mulls this property tax thing over as they should, considering that there probably isn’t really a mandate.