REMARKS
Council Member Restler addresses property tax assessment issues for coops and condos
3:36:34
·
163 sec
Council Member Lincoln Restler expresses frustration with the current property tax assessment system for coops and condos in New York City. He highlights the unfairness of comparing moderate-income buildings to luxury rentals for tax assessment purposes.
- Restler emphasizes that middle-income coop and condo owners are being forced out of their homes due to rising property taxes.
- He criticizes the lack of transparency and fairness in the Department of Finance's assessment process.
- Restler calls for a more equitable approach to property tax assessments for moderate-income buildings.
Lincoln Restler
3:36:34
Thank you very much.
3:36:34
Commissioner, good to see you and team.
3:36:39
I wanted to talk about property taxes.
3:36:44
And I totally I mean, I think it is maddening that when we have a building, coop or condo, that to determine the property taxes for that building, we don't analyze the sales of that property.
3:37:02
We look at comparable we look at rentals, comparable rentals in the area.
3:37:07
I know that's a factor of state law as I understand it.
3:37:10
You all can correct me.
3:37:13
I don't think that makes any sense.
3:37:14
And I do hope that at some point, this administration and and all of the good people in Albany will take this issue seriously.
3:37:21
I think the recommendations that were made a couple years ago were generally prudent.
3:37:25
But in my district, which much of it is a wealthy gentrified district, we have middle income co ops and condos, and they get absolutely screwed in this process because the comps that they're compared to are all luxury rentals.
3:37:40
And we bring this to the Department of Finance time and again over many years.
3:37:43
If you wanna talk about 111 Hicks, which we've talked about before, or 75 Henry, a formal Mitchell Lama building, these are not luxury buildings.
3:37:52
All of the the condos in South Williamsburg, that are, predominantly, inhabited by the Hasidic Jewish community there.
3:38:00
They are compared to luxury rentals.
3:38:02
And I don't understand why the Department of Finance cannot fine tune, their algorithm to create a more fair and equitable process for the taxes that people are paying.
3:38:16
And the reason I wanna underscore this point so broadly it's so sharply is that I have public servants, retirees, people who don't have a penny of mortgage on their property at 75 Hicks, 111, at 75 Henry or 111 Hicks that can no longer afford the maintenance, that have to move out from their apartments because the maintenance has grown up entirely as a result of property taxes.
3:38:39
So we are forcing people out of our community because in moderate income co ops and condos, property taxes are going up so much that, they can't continue to live in my district anymore.
3:38:51
And I don't ever get a good answer, ever.
3:38:54
You're not the 1st commissioner that I've asked questions on about this.
3:38:57
You're not I've there are deputy commissioners that I've asked questions about over years.
3:39:00
Some of them are sitting here.
3:39:01
I've never gotten a good answer.
3:39:02
And I'm hot red mad about it because my constituents get screwed.
3:39:06
Is there anything that we can do?
3:39:07
Is there any confidence that you can give us that this department of finance is actually trying to level the playing field for moderate and middle income co op and condo owners who are getting forced out of my community?
