The Register-Star, January 13, 2008
Livingston, NY

Gillibrand backs tax reform, troop pullout

By John Mason
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand strongly criticized the use of property taxes to fund New York’s schools, and said she would like to see 80 percent of U.S. troops out of Iraq in 12 months, at a “Town Hall meeting” Saturday at Livingston Town Hall . The hall was packed with about 150 people.

The announced agenda was property taxes, and the congresswoman had brought along two state experts, Geoffrey Gloak, a spokesman for the Office of Real Property Services, and Shelly Willett, an education and communication specialist with the Internal Revenue Service. But many other issues affect property taxes, and Saturday’s discussion touched on several, including voting machines, the Iraq War, impeachment and tree preservation.

Noting that New York has some of the U.S. ’s highest property taxes, Gillibrand said one of the biggest causes of this is unfunded mandates such as No Child Left Behind. To applause, she declared herself against unfunded mandates and in favor of a balanced budget amendment.

Property tax, she said, should not be used to fund schools. Senior citizens, farmers and other citizens are “pitted against schoolchildren,” she said. “It’s a terrible situation to place communities in.”

Prior to the meeting, Gillibrand told members of the press she’s backing a proposal to allow “everyone” – not just those who itemize their deductions – to deduct their real estate taxes on their federal tax returns.

During the meeting, she listed three other measures she supports that aim at middle class tax cuts:
- Doubling the child care tax credit as applied to children ages one to five.
- Increasing the college tuition deduction to $10,000. While the average high school graduate earns $25,000 a year, the average college grad makes $45,000, she said.
- Retool the alternative minimum tax. The congresswoman said 66,000 families in her district would have had to pay $4,000 to $6,000 in AMT before the Congress passed a temporary fix.

The audience’s first question, from Debora Gilbert of Taghkanic, concerned electronic voting machines.

Complying with the Help America Vote Act, which is required by 2009, would be “astronomically expensive,” she said.

Gillibrand said there had been a significant debate on this issue in Congress. A town that might not need handicapped voting machines still might have to shell out $4,000 to $6,000 to buy them, she said. “There should be an analysis of need.”

More urgently, Congress postponed the deadline for compliance with HAVA, so New York won’t lose the funding guaranteed under the act.

“We have to make sure everyone in the community can vote, and that the mechanism is secure,” she said. No mention was made of the problems other states, such as Colorado , Florida and Ohio, have experienced with touch-screen machines.

The next questioner was a man from Milan who decided to build a house in Columbia County because of the high taxes in Dutchess.

“Our taxes here are double what they are in Dutchess County ,” he said. He loves this area, but his friends in the south tell him he’s crazy to stay here, he said; “We’re struggling just to pay for oil.”

“The fix you’re looking for is a big one,” Gillibrand said. “The supervisors are strapped for cash to do basic things. The governor [Spitzer] heard from people like you, people are leaving all the time.” What is called for, she said, are large structural changes.

Hudson City School District member Peter Meyer said the problem was equalization rates. With Hudson ’s low equalization rate of 78 percent, city residents’ taxes are up 16 to 20 percent. He suggested the state come in to municipalities earlier to fix this.

Gloak said most states require municipalities to have 100 percent reassessments, while in New York assessments can be done whenever the assessor chooses.

“You wouldn’t need an equalization rate if the assessing were done on the county level,” he said. Gillibrand asked if there were talk of reforms, and Gloak said both Spitzer and ORPS Executive Director Lee Kyriacou are “reform-minded,” and across-the-board 100 percent assessments could be achievable.

“If everyone’s assessed at 100 percent ... that will cripple this region,” Gillibrand shot back. “You’ll price an entire community out of their homes.”

Gloak said there are tax rebates out there for people on limited incomes, and that the tax levies are really what affect the tax burden. Spitzer, he said, was interested in capping property taxes.

A woman from Red Hook who was a retired educator came at Gloak from another angle. “I hear you talking ‘cap,’” she said. “That scares me. Everything schools are asking for they need and deserve ... Why not a different kind of tax? – Income.”

“Absolutely,” Gloak said. “Funding schools differently is on the table as well.” Massachusetts 20 years ago limited property tax to 2.5 percent increases, and fell from first or second in the nation in property taxes to 28th.

“You’re still talking percentages and property taxes,” the woman said. “Kids need books.”

Jim McCabe of Claverack brought up the “astronomical costs” of the Iraq War, the $1.7 trillion bill “that will come due and hit us all in our wallets.”

“Will you support publicly a request by 23 members of Congress to bring articles of impeachment against Vice President Cheney?” he said.

Gillibrand then gave her view of impeachment. “The American people,” she said, “elected a new Congress to do oversight of the administration. There’s so much power in the executive branch that we were losing [democracy].”

Such grounds for impeachment as reasons for waging war and wiretapping need to go through the committee on government reform, she said.

“You need a chain of evidence,” she said, adding that the hearings on the firings of U.S. attorneys for political reasons could lead to impeachable offenses.

But, she said, “ ‘He lied to us about the war,’ – you have to prove it. Do investigations: If the laws are broken there are consequences.”

“This is a call for hearings to let that happen now,” McCabe said.

“The administration has stifled all discussion,” the congresswoman said. “What has to happen are contempt hearings. Investigations take time. I have no doubt the chairmen will pursue these investigations. Some resolutions are not worded well and I don’t support them. There need to be contempt hearings because there’s resistance to producing evidence.”

The chairmen she was referring to were U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan , chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, chair of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, both Democrats. Neither has allowed H Res 799 or H Res 333, the articles of impeachment against Cheney, to be discussed.

Following the meeting, Gillibrand told McCabe she was “shocked” that Nadler, who she considers “very progressive,” was blocking this, and promised to talk to both him and Conyers about the issue.

Gillibrand went on to tell the crowd about the financial effects of the war. The $9 trillion debt means that the U.S. is paying $400 million in interest to countries such as China and Saudi Arabia. “Every person is this room [owes $30,000 to the national debt.] How do we keep America safe? I don’t think the current course in Iraq is the best way.”

She cited one positive event, in Anbar Province : Sixty warlords came together and said, “ America ’s leaving soon,” she said, so they worked together to eject the terrorist elements from their province.

“Our greatest bargaining chip is to say we’re leaving in six, nine months,” she said. Next, the U.S. should invest small amounts of money with accountability into education, health care and job development in the poorest regions of Pakistan, she explained.

“If people have no hope for the future, it’s easy for the Taliban to recruit,” she said. “Small amounts of money could prevent the next generation of terrorists.”

Following the meeting, she that 80 percent of the troops should come home within a year, leaving a certain amount of special operations units to “tackle al Qaeda.” She said she’d like to see increased deployment – perhaps 20,000 troops – in Afghanistan as development forces, and that she was also mulling an anti-drug mission there.

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To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar .com.