Patrick and Michele Martin have lived in their home on Stratford Avenue in Williston Park for four years. In those four years, the school taxes on their home, which is located within the borders of the Mineola School District, have gone from $3,525 in 2005 to $4,547 in 2008, an increase of 29 percent.

In response to the growing concern over property taxes allowing young families to live on Long Island and older families to stay there, New York State Governor David Paterson is introducing legislation that would cap the school tax levy increase at 4 percent each year. The cap came from the recommendation of the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief, chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, which issued its preliminary report.

The governor appeared at the Martin's home last week to announce his legislation, which limits the amount of increase in the tax levy school budgets can call for at 4 percent or 120 percent of Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. If a district wants to exceed the cap, voters of the district must approve the budget by a 55 percent majority. If the district received 5 percent additional in state aid than it received the year before, a 60 percent majority would be required to override the cap. Unlike the initial recommendation that was in the commission's preliminary report, the governor's legislation calls for all school budgets, even those that adhere to the cap, to be voted on by the public.

"New York is the highest taxed state in the nation and we can no longer afford to ignore the reality that property taxes are driving people and businesses out of our state," said Paterson. "This trend is disrupting our quality of life because it is straining family budgets, separating grandchildren from grandparents and discouraging the entrepreneurship that creates innovation and jobs. New Yorkers are calling on their elected officials to come together to comprehensively address this issue."

Some Nassau County school boards, already conscious of school taxes, have an eye on tax levy increases when they put school budgets before the voters each May.

In the Massapequa School District, the proposed 2008-09 budget totaled $166,369,911, a 6.26 percent increase over the previous year, while the total tax levy was $135,925,774, a 5.44 percent increase over the 2007-08 document.

On May 20, the budget was approved by a 2,930 to 2,395 margin.