Is the tax cap is election year pandering?

Property owners could get a noticeable and significant break in their taxes should a bipartisan proposal get state Legislature approval.

The so-called "circuit breaker" bill gives property owners tax credits based on their income levels.

I've heard this story before. I hear it every two years. While it sounds like a great idea, I'd like to see this get past Joe Bruno.

"We want to hear from the people, how they feel about this," state Sen. Thomas Morahan, R-New City, said.

The forum is jointly sponsored by Rockland's state legislators, including Morahan and Assembly members Kenneth P. Zebrowski, D-New City, Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, Annie Rabbitt, R-Greenwood Lake, and Nancy Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove.

Every one of these politicians is up for election this fall, so of course they've got to look like heroes. I've grown wary of politicians and their election year promises and pandering.

If you want real tax reform, let's start with curbing the abusive discretionary spending by our legislators and state senators. The incumbents mentioned in the article should promise to freeze their salaries through 2010 and stop the rampant abuse of members items, which are large, discretionary accounts that they dip into to curry favor among critical demographic groups in their districts.

Read on below the fold...


Member items are nothing but "incumbent insurance" to insure that these politicians get reelected. And who pays to insure their incumbencies? We taxpayers. We unwittingly insure that these politicians remain incumbents and they in turn treat their districts as their own personal baronies, doling out millions at their own, unbridled discretion. We taxpayers have little choice in how these funds are used. Count Morahan is often cited as the biggest abuser of member-item pork.

If you want tax relief, go to that meeting and demand that these politicians vote down member items. Not one of them will make that promise, because then they'd have to raise their own funds and campaign for reelection, and they won't have none of that.

Again, just a few months before an election and Albany is talking tax relief.

So far, this just sounds like populist pandering. Again, I'll believe their dedication to a "circuit breaker" tax cap when I actually see it come to a vote.