Gov. David Paterson issued a statement praising the Senate for passing his 4 percent property tax cap in a 51-8 vote this afternoon and calling on the Assembly Democrats to follow suit – or risk being dragged back to Albany by the governor against their will yet again.

Paterson called the vote the “first significant step toward easing the burden on property taxpayers across the state,” adding:

“I applaud Conference Leader John Sampson, Minority Leader Dean Skelos and the entire New York State Senate for passing legislation to provide New Yorkers a much-needed and long overdue property tax cap.”

“This property tax cap would ensure real, sustainable property tax relief that New Yorkers need now more than ever.

“But this relief will not become a reality until my proposal has passed in the New York State Assembly. I am calling on Speaker Sheldon Silver and the entire Assembly to join with me and the Senate and make the property tax cap law,” Paterson added.

“It is time to put taxpayers above the special interests by bringing the tax cap to the floor for an up or down vote. Unfortunately, because the Assembly failed to take up this legislation today, I will be forced to consider using my executive authority to call for another Extraordinary Session so that this critical issue can finally be debated by both houses of the Legislature.”

The Assembly left town after passing the FMAP contingency plan bill (which received a message of necessity from the governor) and a chapter amendment to remove the tax on non-resident hedge fund managers from the revenue bill.

The Senate also managed to pass the FMAP bill in a 37-22 vote, but so far hasn’t moved on anything else. The SUNY empowerment bill has been laid aside, in spite of a report in The Buffalo News that Sen. Bill Stachowski might be ready to end his protest and vote on the revenue will without a deal that would enable UB 2020 to move forward.

“We held it as long as we can,” Stachowski told the News’ Tom Precious. “At some point, it doesn’t become you’re trying to get UB 2020 done. It’s going to be the latest budget in the history of the state, and that doesn’t accomplish anything for anybody.”

“So, we may have to take a position where (the final budget bill gets passed) and we continue to try to push to get something done for SUNY.”

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