Civil Service Employees Association President Danny Donohue posted a scathing assessment of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s fiscal policy and cap on local property tax increases, deriding it as “indefensible” for its impact on local governments.

In a post on laborpress.org, Donohue rails against the measure, which is beginning to take effect now as local governments begin putting together their budgets for 2012. The cap is one of Cuomo’s crowning legislative achievements in his first year.

But as the cap is implemented, the governor has started a concerted effort to promote its benefits and ability to control the highest property taxes in the country. Donohue scoffs at the notion.

“Hard to imagine why the Governor has taken to an advertising campaign to pat himself on the back for his ‘accomplishments’ that make it harder for localities to manage their budgets and diminish the quality of life in our communities,” Donohue writes.

CSEA is the largest state-worker labor organization, but it also has thousands of members and affiliated workers on the county, city and town level who would likely be affected by the 2 percent cap on local levies.

The governor has sought to dispel worries about the cap, pointing to the ability of local elected officials on the municipal level to override the cap. Sixty percent of voters in a school district can override the cap as well.

Donohue’s union has had a somewhat rocky relationship with the governor and refused to endorse anyone in the 2010 gubernatorial race. However, the labor group approved an agreement with the state that included concessions. The CSEA contract was easier to come by than the agreement negotiated with the second-largest union, PEF, whose rank and file initially voted down its contract.

H/T due to Jon Campbell, who spotted the Donohue post.

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