Candidate for Congress says Medicaid costs are keys to property tax relief

AUBURN - Property taxes are too high in upstate New York, according to a candidate for U.S. Congress. One way to reduce them would be to force the state to take on the full cost of Medicaid, the candidate announced Monday.

Dale Sweetland, the Republican running for the state's 25th District, told local officials during a press conference that, if elected, he will propose legislation to do just that.

According to Sweetland, there is a loophole in a federal law that allows the state to impose Medicaid costs onto its county governments through unfunded mandates. If the loophole is fixed and the state assumes those costs, local taxpayers will save hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, Sweetland claimed.