Could how much you pay in property taxes soon be capped? Governor David Paterson is hoping so, as he plans to introduce a school property tax cap, to address what he calls an un-sustainable growth in recent property taxes.

The cap would apply to all school districts, outside the biggest five cities in the state, meaning Oneida, Herkimer, and Otsego County schools would be eligible.

However, those who actually make the school budgets, say it could be a headache more than anything.

If approved, the governor's proposal would not allow a school district to craft a budget that would cause the tax levy to rise by more than 4%.

The idea behind the legislation is to encourage school districts to spend within their means. However, New Hartford superintendent Dan Gilligan says its one thing to tell schools to control spending, but at the same time the state needs to do a better job with mandate reliefs.

Gilligan says there are far too many unfunded mandates that drive up a districts budget each year.

To help that, and eventually help the property tax levy, Gilligan thinks the state needs to reconsider how state aid is distributed to districts.

"Those mandates create an enormous cost to the districts," Gilligan said. "They can't control. and in this day and age when you're already struck with fuel prices and other expenditures that truly are beyond your control, when you look at some of the mandates that generate more for expenditures, its just not reasonable."

Gilligan went on to say to say that low-wealth districts are the ones who would be hurt by this cap.

He says, those low wealth districts are those that aren't seeing any kind of economic development, in their community, to help relieve the tax burden.

The legislation proposed would still leave room for districts to go over that 4% increase if they felt they needed to.

However, anything above the 4% would need 55% of voters in a district to approve. But if that over 4% proposal is then rejected, the levy increase would then revert back to the 4% cap.