Democratic leaders in the State Assembly are signaling that they are ready to embrace a cap on local property taxes, which could clear the way for its passage this year, but Assembly leaders are indicating that they also want stricter rent regulations for New York City, according to an article in today's edition of The New York Times by Nicholas Confessore.

The property tax cap, the article continued, is popular with voters in New York's suburbs, who pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, and it is one of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's top priorities and already has support from the Republican-led State Senate.

The stricter rent regulations in the city, however, it said, are strongly opposed by Republicans.

"In a day and age when we're talking about giving people the ability to live in their homes and not be priced out of their homes, we should not forget people who have rent protections," the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said, adding, "I just think the philosophy behind the tax cap is the same as the philosophy behind rent regulation."

Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, played down the idea that he was seeking to link the two proposals directly, the article said, adding, however, that Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez of Brooklyn, chairman of the Committee on Housing and an ally of Mr. Silver, made clear they were connected. "The Republicans want property-tax breaks, and we want that, too," Mr. Lopez said. "But if it's tied to rent regulations that impact a million people, to me that's a very logical option, and I believe the overwhelming number of people in our conference would support that."

Mr. Lopez and other senior Assembly Democrats are already paving the way for a kind of bargain, which could include extending an expired tax break, known as 421-A, avidly sought by New York real estate developers, the article said. The proposed linking of the two issues in the Assembly was first reported on Sunday in The Daily News.

"The position taken by Mr. Silver and other Assembly leaders is significant," the article said, "because the Assembly has in recent years been the place in Albany where proposals to cap property taxes meet a quiet death.

"Mr. Lopez said his committee was moving fast on an ambitious package of rent legislation, including a bill to abolish vacancy decontrol, a procedure that has allowed owners of rent-regulated apartments to move hundreds of thousands of units out of the rent-stabilization system, according to estimates by tenant advocates. He also said he hoped to pass a temporary extension of the tax break that would expire on the same day in June as the existing rent regulations," the article said.

About one million apartments in the city's five boroughs, roughly half of all rental units, are covered by the existing laws, which sharply limit landlords' ability to raise rents and keep many apartments, particularly in Manhattan, renting at well below market value. Currently, apartments become deregulated when the rent reaches $2,000 and total household income of the tenants is at least $175,000 annually for two years.

Mr. Silver said he would like not only to preserve those protections, but also to expand them, by raising the income and rent thresholds. One model could be a bill that has passed the Assembly twice in recent years: It would raise the thresholds for so-called high-income decontrol to $2,700 in monthly rent and $240,000 in annual income.

Gov. Cuomo on Monday shot down Assembly-led efforts to link his proposed property-tax cap with beefed-up rent regulations, according to an article by Kenneth Lovett and Glenn Blain in the January 11, 2011 edition of The New York Daily News. Cuomo said after a meeting with legislative leaders that the two issues should be considered separately - and not tied together as part of a legislative deal.