March 23, 2015. The governor’s Executive Budget proposal includes a significant new property “circuit breaker” that would provide relief to households (both owners and renters) whose property taxes are unreasonably high relative to their income. Circuit breakers address a serious shortcoming of the property tax—that payments are not linked to the taxpayer’s ability to pay. The State Assembly’s proposed budget also included the circuit breaker with an important modification—removing the link to the property tax cap. The Senate, in contrast, replaced the circuit breaker with a tax rebate for homeowners only based on the existing STAR exemptions.

In addition, the Executive Budget would make a number of changes to the STAR school tax exemption program including reducing the annual growth in the maximum credit to zero and converting the exemption to an income tax credit for new recipients. The Assembly and the Senate each include some but not all of the changes proposed by the governor.

Click here for details on the Executive, Assembly, and Senate property tax relief proposals.