Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders are talking tough about instituting a 2 percent cap on property tax increases this year. While that may sound ideal for homeowners, it's causing consternation among north country school and town officials.

"You couldn't find a school board member or a superintendent anywhere in our region that would want to raise taxes one percent, one dollar, if that were possible," said Jay Boak, superintendent of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services. "But their costs are going up just like everybody's elses."

Upstate, salaries are increasing 2 to 4 percent annually, according to the Statewide School Finance Consortium, an Albany group advocating for reforming public school funding. Health insurance costs are going up 12 to 16 percent annually, while pension costs are, in some instances, increasing more than 40 percent.

Schools and towns also face unanticipated costs, such as sudden increases in the cost of fuel or energy. Justin Taylor, president of the Jefferson County Town Supervisor's Association, said diesel fuel costs have increased 50 cents per gallon since September.

Joe Eberle, the business manager at South Jefferson Central School, said his district purchases 90,000 gallons of diesel every school year. The price increase could unexpectedly cost the district as much as $45,000.

Eberle said if the two percent cap were in place, his district could raise a maximum of $120,000 more from taxpayers. The school faces a pension cost increase between $300,000 and $400,000 in the next academic year.

If state aid were frozen or decreased, Eberle said, "We're not sure where the resources are going to come from to balance the budget."

South Jefferson is not alone. Thirty of 33 districts in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties would not be able to increase spending more than one percent if the cap were in place, according to the statewide consortium.

Town supervisors are "cautiously optimistic" the cap could work within the right parameters, Taylor said.

"If it were purely a property tax cap, it probably would be very difficult to continue to operate local governments the way we do today," he said. "If the state comes up with mandate relief and Medicaid reform, then imposes a property tax cap, I think that's going to be much more palatable to local governments."

Taylor, who is Clayton town supervisor, said his municipality is routinely trying to comply with state mandates without receiving any financial assistance. Clayton councilmen estimate that a new Department of Environmental Conservation rule regarding emissions on diesel trucks will cost the town an additional $15,000 per diesel fueled vehicle. A new government-mandated grate installed at the Recreation Park pool cost an additional $4,000, he said.

Without relief, Taylor said towns may be forced to cut park hours, courtesy rides or other non-essential services.

"If it came down to whether we plowed roads or we paid for people to get transported into the city, I think, from an emergency services perspective, we're going to plow roads," the supervisor said.

Boak said Cuomo should consider allowing locals to override the Cuomo cap in a vote.

"I think our citizens would want local control," the superintendent said. "If you want to offer four or five different foreign languages, all kinds of athletic programs, musical programs, that is a value judgment by the electorate. And if they want to do that, then I would think they should have the right to do that. And putting a cap on that circumvents that."