Two Columbia County towns are considering exceeding New York’s property tax cap for 2027, while three neighboring Dutchess County towns say they do not plan to raise their tax levies beyond the state limit.
Ancram’s tentative budget calls for about a 9.5% increase in the total town property tax levy. Gallatin is proposing an override to restore taxes to levels from before a one-year tax holiday. In Dutchess County, Milan, Pine Plains and Stanford say they do not intend to exceed the cap, though Stanford has passed a resolution preserving the option and Pine Plains plans to do the same.
The discussions come as a growing share of towns across New York have considered overriding the tax cap in recent years.
In 2011, New York state adopted a law limiting how much local governments, school districts and fire districts can increase the total amount of property taxes they collect each year. The limit is 2% or the annual rate of inflation, whichever is lower, with certain exceptions, including large increases in pension costs or significant costs arising from tort cases. Since 2022, inflation has exceeded 2%, keeping the cap at 2%.
The cap applies to the total amount of property taxes a municipality collects, not to individual tax bills, which also depend on assessed property values and exemptions for seniors, people with disabilities and others.
An August report from the state comptroller’s office found that 28.6% of towns planned to override the cap in 2026, up from 16.6% in 2022. The share peaked at 29.8% in 2025.
The rate fell in 2022 as federal pandemic aid and higher-than-usual sales tax revenue reduced the need to raise property taxes, according to the report. Since then, the winding down of federal aid, inflation consistently above 2% and moderating sales tax revenue have contributed to more towns considering overrides.
The figures measure towns’ stated intent to override the cap, not whether they ultimately exceeded it.
Exceeding the tax cap requires adoption of a local law following a public hearing and approval by at least 60% of the town board or other governing body.
In Ancram, the Town Board has not yet proposed a tax cap override, but the town’s tentative 2027 budget includes about a 9.5% increase in the town property tax levy.
The town is set to collect nearly $708,000 in property taxes in 2026. A 9.5% increase would bring that amount to about $775,000. The increase, recommended by the town’s Financial Advisory Council, would cost the average household about $56, according to Steve Olyha, who chairs the council.
“What has happened in Ancram over the last 16 years is that we have not taken a tax increase at all,” Olyha said. “It’s been zero or less. In at least two of those 16 years, taxes actually went down by 5%. All the years that we were not raising taxes, salaries were still going up 3% a year, and health care and insurance has been going up 10 or 12% a year, and so on.”
That pattern, Olyha said, makes an override necessary to balance next year’s budget without depleting the town’s surplus reserves.
“In retrospect, we should not have kept taxes at zero or cut taxes,” Olyha said. “If we had been taking the amount of increase in taxes that the state allows us, roughly 2% a year, for the last 16 years, we wouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in.”
Supervisor Colleen Lutz said the board will determine whether an override is necessary after a public hearing on the preliminary budget in October.
“With expenses increasing exponentially and far above 2% of previous costs, municipalities are becoming much more likely to approve a tax cap override,” Lutz said in an email to the Herald. “In a basic sense, the growth in our recurring revenues (sales tax, mortgage tax) is not able to match the rate of expenses.”
The neighboring town of Gallatin is also planning to exceed the cap.
Supervisor Tara Silberberg said an override would return town taxes to roughly where they were before former Supervisor John Reilly granted a tax holiday for 2026, reducing the levy by 58%. The tax holiday was intended to return tax revenue collected over five years for a proposed new Town Hall after the board decided in 2025 not to build it.
“The year before, [our tax collection] had been almost $400,000, and last year it was $167,000,” Silberberg said. “An override would be a natural correction to that.”
The town portion is the smallest part of a resident’s property tax bill, Silberberg said, and pays for services many residents value most, including road maintenance and snowplowing.
The Town Board proposed an override at its September meeting and scheduled a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20.
In Dutchess County, Stanford approved a resolution at its September meeting preserving the Town Board’s ability to override the tax cap for 2027. But Supervisor Julia Descoteaux said the town does not expect to exceed the cap this year and has not done so since 2021.
Descoteaux said the resolution was adopted partly as a precaution because year-end revenues and expenses remain uncertain, and partly to encourage residents to participate in the budget process.
The town is projected to face between $147,500 and $162,500 in additional costs in 2027, according to Descoteaux, driven by increases in emergency medical services, fuel, employee health insurance and transfer station operations.
For now, however, Descoteaux said the town remains in good financial shape. Since 2025, she said, Stanford has received an annual $700,000 gift from an anonymous donor. The 2027 gift will be the last.
“Our town is in a good financial position, but we really do need engagement around how we can keep costs lower,” she said, “because I foresee in five to 10 years if we continue on this track, especially if I don’t have anyone subsidizing my ambulance costs, the town will realistically probably need to override the tax cap.”
Pine Plains has not yet passed a similar resolution, but Supervisor Brian Walsh said the town does so each year as a precaution, on the advice of its attorney.
“The budget still needs to go to the [Town Board] for the board to overlook and make whatever changes they want to make,” Walsh said. “But I personally don’t have any intentions of overriding the tax cap.”
In Milan, Supervisor Bill Jeffway said the town does not plan to override the tax cap or adopt a resolution preserving its ability to do so.
“Usually the biggest jumps are in health care costs,” Jeffway said. “We don’t have that big a staff.”
Christopher Koetzle, executive director of the New York Association of Towns, said rising health insurance costs and a lack of state assistance in controlling those costs are major reasons more towns are considering tax cap overrides.
“Health insurance laws within New York make it very difficult for towns to employ any strategies to cut health insurance costs and premiums,” Koetzle said. “For example, a state can make a policy that towns can come together in a consortium and therefore have buying power. Most towns have fewer than 100 employees, and if you have fewer than 100 employees in the state, you’re stuck in what they call the community rate. [This] means you have to take the highest increases.”
If the state continues imposing such mandates without addressing rising premiums, he said, “there’s going to be a crisis.”