ELIZABETHTOWN — Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward said she’s working hard on setting up a safety net for people who can’t pay heating bills this winter.

Sayward (R-Willsboro) told the Essex County Board of Supervisors she expects the legislature to be called back into session sometime in July.

That’s when issues like home-heating-oil subsidies and property-tax reform could be addressed, she said.

She said a lot was left undone at the last legislative session in Albany.

“We have a lot of work left to do. It was a very eventful session. It started off with a bang and ended that way, too.”

PROPERTY-TAX CAP

Sayward said she believes the property-tax cap issue is not dead after all. It has been opposed by major labor unions, which at one time declared it “dead.”

“About 73 percent of the people in the state of New York want a property-tax cap. I hope when we return in July people will have crowded our representatives and we can get that done.”

A Siena College poll came up with the 73-percent figure.

A Circuit Breaker bill would cap homeowners’ property taxes at a percentage of their income, roughly 6 to 8 percent.

Sayward said the idea for the property-tax Circuit Breaker bill came from Essex County officials.

“That was the very beginning of the concept of Circuit Breaker. Time will play that out. The people need it (property-tax reform), and they need it now.”

Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) is the Senate sponsor of the bill, which has yet to be voted on in either house.