Senate's budget proposal caps state spending
MARY LOU RATH New York State Senator
Last week, the Senate passed its budget proposal, which includes a constitutional spending cap to limit taxes and spending going forward and to further increase accountability for taxpayers.

The proposed constitutional amendment would prevent the executive from submitting a budget that increases spending by more than 4 percent over the previous year's budget and ensure that both houses of the Legislature stay within reasonable spending limits.

We feel that halting taxes is a critical part of any budget plan. Reflecting this, the Senate budget rejects the $1.7 billion in tax and fee increases recommended in the executive budget, including a 300 percent tax increase on motor vehicle registration fees, higher gas taxes, and increased taxes on hospitals, nursing homes and health insurance.

The Senate proposal also rejects the New York City-led Assembly Democrats' proposal to increase the state's personal income tax by $1.5 billion, as well as rolling back $16 billion in tax cuts which would lead to an unprecedented assault on taxpayers to pay for additional state spending.

In addition, the Senate proposal restores $319 million in scheduled STAR school property tax relief that was left out of the executive budget, maintaining property tax relief as a top priority of the Senate.

The constitutional spending cap is an important part of the Senate's overall proposal. Under the cap, year-to-year state spending increases would be limited to 120 percent of the Consumer Price Index or 4 percent, whichever is less. In any given year, 50 percent of tax revenue that exceeded the cap would be placed in a reserve fund and 50 percent would be returned to taxpayers in the form of direct tax rebates.

Had this constitutional amendment been in place the last five years, state taxpayers would have saved $13.1 billion, half of which would have been returned to taxpayers and the other half placed in a rainy day reserve fund.

According to a 2007 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, 30 states have put in place statutory or constitutional tax or spending limits. New York continues to rank at or near the top in combined state and local tax burden, further illustrating the need to enact a spending cap. I look forward to working with my legislative colleagues to make it happen this year.

With assorted plans aimed at requiring school districts to implement a tax cap, it is important the state does more to control spending and taxes. A constitutional amendment is the only guarantee against excessive and wasteful spending and higher taxes to pay for that spending.