Seward Calls For Special Session On Prop Taxes, Fuel

State Senator James L. Seward (R/C/I-Oneonta) has urged Governor David A. Paterson to call a special session of the state legislature to address property tax relief and burdensome fuel costs. Seward, in a letter hand-delivered to the governor on Friday, July 18, said that property tax relief can not wait and that rising home heating costs will make the winter difficult for residents of his district.

"We need to enact a responsible property tax cap and we must deal with high fuel prices," Senator Seward said. "Hardworking taxpayers are being slammed by this double hit of taxes and heating costs, and the legislature needs to go back to Albany and deal with it."

Seward asked the governor to put the following items on a fast track agenda for both houses of the legislature:

1. A property tax cap;

2. Home heating tax credit (passed by the senate);

3. Boosting the HEAP program for low and moderate income families;

4. A resolution urging the federal government to boost its HEAP allocation to the states and to develop domestic alternatives to oil;

5. To halt DEC regulations that would ban wood stoves and wood burning furnaces.

"I am concerned that some families and seniors will have to choose between filling the oil tank and the refrigerator this year," Seward said. "Hardworking taxpayers need help and they need it now.

"I am calling for a special session of the legislature, now, and for the assembly to take a stand on the property tax cap," Seward said.