ICYMI: Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo told me during a CapTon interview last night that she’s worried Southern Tier school districts impacted by recent flooding won’t be able to stay within the 2 percent property tax cap pushed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and passed by the Legislature this past session.

“I’m concerned for our school districts…One of my school districts launched lost an entire elementary school – one that, in fact, just had gone through a beautiful renovation – they’re now trying to locate themselves in another place,” the assemblywoman told me while standing outside a Vestal shelter where she has set up a temporary district office.

“So, I think the school districts, I have to say, are going to be challenged, honestly, sticking with that 2 percent property tax cap. We’ll have to see how our municipalities do, but we’ll know more when we have the data.”

Cuomo said recently the cap has a “built-in relief valve” that lets voters override if they feel the need to raise taxes by more than 2 percent.

Even so, some local officials want the state and federal governments to pick up the full tab of the storm recovery bill, insisting that to require them to pay their 12.5 percent share would break the bank for already over-taxed property owners.

NYCOM’s Peter Baynes told Gannett many local governments were already eyeing tax cap overrides even before the added expense of the storm, and predicted that number will now only grow. He lamented the fact that the cap legislation included no exceptions for emergency spending.

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