Deal Reached in Albany to Cap Property Taxes

The proposed property tax cap, which must be approved by the Legislature, is aimed at reversing the economic decline in many parts of the state outside of New York City. It also seeks to curb soaring property tax bills in areas like Long Island, Westchester County and pockets of upstate New York, where residents are facing among the highest property taxes in the nation.

Some residents, particularly those who are older and live on fixed incomes, are being forced out of their homes by rising property taxes.

“It is going to be a game changer, and it’s going to change the trajectory of this state,” Mr. Cuomo said.

New York has long had some of the highest property taxes in the nation, and those taxes increased by 5.5 percent, on average, each year from 1999 to 2009, according to statistics provided by the Cuomo administration.

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group, said this month that three of the five highest-taxed counties in the nation were in New York: Nassau, Westchester and Rockland Counties. In Nassau and Westchester, the median annual property tax bill exceeds $8,000.

The tax-cap agreement was welcomed by business and farm groups, but teachers’ unions reacted with dismay, saying the move would cause cuts to money for education and would diminish the quality of public schools. The unions pointed to California as an example, saying a property tax cap and broader budget woes have had a harmful effect on schools in that state.

“New York would be devastated by the toughest cap in the nation at a time when its public schools have suffered three years of the toughest cuts to education,” said Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers. “There’s no question this strikes at the heart of the educational needs of the most vulnerable students, especially children of color and children who live in poverty.”

The agreement gives the Democratic governor, who made limiting property tax increases a cornerstone of his campaign, his biggest political victory since the Legislature approved an on-time and relatively austere budget in March, and it further establishes Mr. Cuomo’s record of fiscal conservatism.

The agreement, which would take effect next year, would limit the annual increase in the overall amount of property taxes collected by a local government or a school district. Property tax increases for individual homeowners could vary as properties are reassessed.

“This issue is probably the most powerful and pervasive issue across this state,” the governor said at an appearance with legislative leaders on Tuesday. “People in New York City don’t feel it, but I can’t tell you how many times somebody has come up to me and said, ‘You have to do something about property taxes; I just can’t afford to stay in my home anymore.’ ”

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has said the tax cap should be approved only in concert with the renewal, and the strengthening, of rent-stabilization regulations in New York City. But Mr. Cuomo, who supports strengthening rent stabilization, and the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Republican from Long Island who does not, said they did not believe the rent issue would jeopardize the passage of a property tax cap before the scheduled end of the legislative session, June 20.

Forty-three other states have some limits on property taxes. But New York is unusual because property taxes are the main source of support for schools outside of the city, where the schools are primarily financed by a municipal income tax.

While some details remain to be worked out, particularly the length of time before the legislation expires, legislative leaders in both parties said they were confident that a final agreement was at hand.

“This is a great day,” said Mr. Skelos, adding, “New York State once again can be competitive in creating jobs, and rather than exporting people, bringing people to the state.”

Mr. Silver said, “With this legislation, we are finally able to bring property taxes under control and still provide critical services.”

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Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4: Sabathia Throws Complete Game, and Yankees Rally in Ninth for Win

The offense did the rest. The Yankees scored two runs in the eighth and two with two outs in the ninth — the final one on Mark Teixeira’s single — to rally for a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

With one out in the ninth and the Yankees trailing by a run, Jorge Posada electrified the crowd with a double to right-center off Frank Francisco. He was given a standing ovation as he was removed for pinch-runner Chris Dickerson, who moved to third on a groundout by Derek Jeter.

Curtis Granderson singled home Dickerson to tie the score, then stole second base before Teixeira singled through the infield, scoring him to make a winner out of Sabathia (5-3).

Teixeira may have been the hero, but he credited Posada’s double with getting things started, saying: “That’s huge. If that doesn’t happen, it may not have ended up the way it did.”

Posada, who is hitting .183, said the victory could be a sign of good things to come.

“It can turn it around, it really can,” he said. “It’s a good feeling in here when you win a game like that.”

Sabathia, who retired the final 16 Toronto batters, outlasted the Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero, who pitched seven dominant innings but was let down by his bullpen.

It was just Sabathia’s second complete game in Yankee Stadium since he joined the Yankees three seasons ago, though he pointed out that on a team with Mariano Rivera, complete games are hardly necessary.

“When you’ve got a closer like Mo, eight innings is really a complete game,” he said. “So I just have to go out there and be able to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win.”

Russell Martin got the Yankees off to a good start in the second with a home run to left field. It was his ninth homer of the season, breaking a tie for most home runs by a catcher this season with Toronto’s J. P. Arencibia.

Sabathia then faltered a bit, giving the run back in the top of the third. He allowed sharp singles by Rajai Davis, Yunel Escobar and Corey Patterson before striking out Jose Bautista on a checked swing to end the inning.

Things became messy for Sabathia in the top of the fourth as the Blue Jays scored three runs, but then both pitchers settled down into the duel that many anticipated, with Romero facing just one over the minimum number of batters during the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, and Sabathia pitching five perfect innings to close out the game.

In the bottom of the eighth, Granderson led off with a double. After a groundout by Teixeira and a strikeout by Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano doubled to score Granderson and came home on a single by Martin. The struggling Nick Swisher popped out to right field to end the threat.

On top of his gutsy performance, Sabathia seemingly found a way to deal with the red-hot Bautista, who hit his major-league-leading 19th home run Monday night. Bautista went 0 for 4, accounting for the final out in four innings.

“I just try to move it around; he’s a tough hitter,” Sabathia said of his success against Bautista. “I just try to throw strikes to all parts of the zone. It worked out tonight.”

It did not work out for Francisco, who blew his second save of the season

Toronto Manager John Farrell said: “To their credit, Posada jump-started their offense in the ninth with that double. We just couldn’t close it out.”

Soriano, who felt soreness in his injured elbow during his throwing session Monday, will be examined Wednesday by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla. The Yankees are withholding the results of Soriano’s latest magnetic resonance imaging test until Andrews has had a chance to examine it.

The latest news seemed to concern Manager Joe Girardi.

“I really thought that we would have him getting ready to possibly go out on a rehab assignment shortly,” Girardi said before the game, “and that doesn’t seem to be the case now.”

INSIDE PITCH

Derek Jeter was the Yankees’ designated hitter. When asked before the game if it was a half-day for Jeter, Joe Girardi joked: “A half-day, yeah. Kids like half-days.” Jeter went 0 for 5 and remains 25 hits short of 3,000. ... Nick Swisher got the start in right field after two consecutive days off. Despite facing a left-hander, Swisher was unable to break out of his season-long slump, going 0 for 4 and lowering his batting average to .208. ... Reliever Dave Robertson will travel to his hometown, Tuscaloosa, Ala., after Wednesday’s game to survey hurricane damage and start a charity to raise money for recovery.

Tyler Kepner contributed reporting.

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Romney and Democrats Spar Over Auto Bailout

On the day that Chrysler wrote a check repaying $5.1 billion to the United States Treasury, President Obama and his Democratic allies claimed credit for saving a crucial industry in Michigan, a state that will be a critical battleground in the 2012 presidential election.

“Supporting the American auto industry required making some tough decisions,” Mr. Obama said in a statement, “but I was not willing to walk away from the workers at Chrysler and the communities that rely on this iconic American company.”

Democrats also sought to highlight past statements from Mr. Obama’s likely Republican rivals, who had criticized the president for a federal bailout that they said was unnecessary and wasteful.

The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday released a YouTube video highlighting a 2008 opinion article by Mitt Romney in The New York Times titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” In the video, Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is shown asserting, “If you write a check, they are going to go out of business.”

In 2009, Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama’s plans for rescuing the automobile industry were “tragic” and “a very sad circumstance for this country.”

A Romney spokesman said on Tuesday that the president’s plan was modeled after one Mr. Romney advocated in 2008.

“Mitt Romney had the idea first,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney spokesman, citing the Times opinion article. “You have to acknowledge that. He was advocating for a course of action that eventually the Obama administration adopted.”

But Mr. Fehrnstrom also accused Mr. Obama of wasting billions of dollars “propping up” the auto companies as part of the government’s restructuring plans for the industry.

“Mitt Romney argued that instead of a bailout, we should let the car companies go through a restructuring under the bankruptcy laws,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said.

Democratic officials in Washington and Michigan responded that Mr. Fehrnstrom’s assertion flew in the face of both the time line of events and the financial reality that was facing the companies at the time.

“Mitt Romney must think that the entire country has fallen into a state of amnesia if he believes he can get away with this revisionist history,” said Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “The record is clear. Mitt Romney would have let G.M. and Chrysler go bankrupt without extending them a dime of federal assistance.”

Democratic officials noted that Chrysler and General Motors received the federal aid only after they entered bankruptcy — not before, as Mr. Romney’s spokesman asserted.

And they said the bankruptcy’s success depended on the federal money.

“Mitt Romney is doing circuslike contortions to get out from under the damaging words he uttered in 2008,” said Jennifer M. Granholm, a former Democratic governor of Michigan.

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U.S. Suit Sees Manipulation of Oil Trades

But on Tuesday, federal commodities regulators filed a civil lawsuit against two obscure traders in Australia and California and three American and international firms.

The suit says that in early 2008 they tried to hoard nearly two-thirds of the available supply of a crucial American market for crude oil, then abruptly dumped it and improperly pocketed $50 million.

The regulators from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would not say whether the agency was conducting any other investigations into oil speculation. With oil prices climbing again this year, President Obama has asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to set up a working group to look into fraud in oil and gas markets and “safeguard against unlawful consumer harm.”

In the case filed Tuesday, the defendants — James T. Dyer of Australia, Nicholas J. Wildgoose of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and three related companies, Parnon Energy of California, Arcadia Petroleum of Britain and Arcadia Energy, a Swiss company — have told regulators they deny they manipulated the market.

If the United States proves the claims, the defendants may give up $50 million in profits that were believed to be made as a result of the manipulation and also pay a penalty of up to $150 million.

The commodities agency says the case involves a complex scheme that relied on the close relationship between physical oil prices and the prices of financial futures, which move in parallel.

In a matter of a few weeks in January 2008, the defendants built up large positions in the oil futures market on exchanges in New York and London, according to the suit, filed in the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.

At the same time, they bought millions of barrels of physical crude oil at Cushing, Okla., one of the main delivery sites for West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for American oil, the suit says. They bought the oil even though they had no commercial need for it, giving the market the impression of a shortage, the complaint says.

At one point they had such a dominant position that they owned about 4.6 million barrels of crude oil, estimating that this represented two-thirds of the seven million barrels of excess oil then available at Cushing, according to lawsuits.

This type of oil is also the main driver of prices of the futures contracts, and their actions caused futures prices to rise, the authorities say. “They wanted to lull market participants into believing that supply would remain tight,” the agency said. “They knew that as long as the market believed that supply was tight and getting even tighter, there would be upward pressure on the prices of W.T.I. for February delivery relative to March delivery, which was their goal.”

The traders in mid-January cashed out their futures position, and then a few days later began to bet on a decline in oil futures, with Mr. Wildgoose remarking in an e-mail about the “inevitable puking” of their position on an unsuspecting market, the federal lawsuit says.

In one day, Jan. 25, they then dumped most of their holdings of West Texas Intermediate oil, and profited by the drop in futures.

The traders repeated the buying and selling in March 2008, and were preparing to do it again in April but stopped when investigators contacted them for information, the suit says.

Between January and April, average gas prices rose roughly to $3.50 a gallon, from $3. It was not until later in 2008, after the defendants had ceased their reported actions, that oil prices soared higher — reaching $145 that July. By the end of the year, prices had fallen to about $44. The Texas oil is now around $100.

Many other factors were at work, including tight oil supplies in the Middle East and fears that a growing global economy would consume more oil. Yet the enforcement action by the commodities regulator was the first credible evidence that a small group of traders also played a role in manipulating prices.

“This will  help to satisfy the desire to find a culprit and throw them under the wheels of justice,” said Michael Lynch, an oil market specialist at Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a consulting firm.

Calls to Arcadia Petroleum in London were not immediately returned. A person who answered the phone at Arcadia Energy in Switzerland said that he was unaware of the complaints and that Mr. Dyer and Mr. Wildgoose were on vacation and unavailable for comment.

In the last few years, the commission has settled a handful of cases of manipulation in the natural gas market.

In 2007, it settled charges for $1 million against the Marathon Petroleum Company for trying to manipulate West Texas Intermediate crude oil in 2003.

The agency brought an action similar to its latest case in 2008, asserting that Optiver Holding, a proprietary trading fund based in the Netherlands with a Chicago affiliate, used a trading program in 2007 to issue orders to manipulate the crude oil market. The case is pending. It involved claims of manipulation of futures contracts for light sweet crude, New York Harbor heating oil and New York Harbor gasoline.

Clifford Krauss contributed reporting.

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