NAACP New York State Conference NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE May 9, 2012 The Honorable Andrew Cuomo Governor of the State of New York State Capitol Albany, New York 12224 Dear Govemor Cuomo: 1a Writing t ask for your support for meaningful tax relief and ask you to take time to consider real solutions that are cost effective so they immediately alleviate property tax burdens State. By imposing any type of property tax cap, sofor conditional, we would be reversing the tend of the gains we have made in education in our State. Xf 8 property tax cap is enacted, the legislature will be pressured to send school aid to capped districts at the expense of the Big 5 and other school districts, The funding for this additional schoo! aid may have to come from the promised Campaign for Fiseal Equity (CFE) settlement funding to the Big 5 School Districts. This would mean that New York tc abandoning its Commitment to providing every child a sound, basic education, The proposed legislation (S.2706/A.3982, Governor's Program Bill #1) on property tax caps Provide the citizens in a locality the ability to vote to override the limit temporarily with a 60 New York state has a larger proportion of students living in Poverty than the rest of the nation, Many of whom aze facing eitical social and economic factors, such se there ability to afford health care, which impact their ability to perform in schools, We shoals ot enact legislation 1088 Avenue of he Ametices, Suite 300 + New York. NY 10018 «Telephone: 212.348 7474 « Fae 212 344.4047 emai. NYSNAACPGaol.comGovernor Andrew Cuomo May 9, 2011 Page 2 of 2 While these proposals are well intentioned, they will lead to lower test scores and higher dropout fates We must prepare our children inorder to have them compete inthe 21" century Workforce. Any proposed legislation that includes any type of cap will cause irreparable harm toward the education of students in this state, The citizens in New York deserve Teal solutions Such as the “circuit breaker”, energy savings and consolidation of certain school services, ax + Start, toward real property tax elif. We ask that you consider other solutions to provide real Property tax relief without hurting programs and services that our children need in order to compete globally. Sincerely, Ce: Sheldon Silver, Speaker New York State Assembly Dean Skelos, Majority Leader New York State Senate