REMARKS
Council Member Sandy Nurse discusses property tax collection reform
0:26:22
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113 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse discusses the passage of Introduction 962, a bill aimed at reforming New York City's property tax collection system. While acknowledging the bill's limitations, Nurse highlights its significant improvements over the current tax lien sale system.
- The bill provides multiple 'off ramps' for small homeowners, particularly benefiting black, brown, senior, and low-income homeowners.
- Key features include a new opt-in preservation track, an easy exit system for struggling homeowners, a minimum payment system, and a circuit breaker deferral program for low-income homeowners.
- Nurse emphasizes that while this bill is a step forward, more work remains to be done on this issue.
Sandy Nurse
0:26:22
Thank you, majority leader.
0:26:24
Since 1996, New York City has privatized the collection of property tax and other debt by relying on a complex web of trust servicers and Wall Street Companies through a system called the tax lien sale.
0:26:37
It has been the primary enforcement tool to collect property tax arrears, but it has also been a tool of displacement.
0:26:44
Advocate for years have demanded the city abandon or transform the lien sale into a fair system that centers compliance and preservation.
0:26:52
Today's bill, intro 962, is the latest result, but not the end of this work.
0:26:58
And to be clear, this bill is not perfect, It does not abolish the tax lien sale.
0:27:03
It does not provide enough protections for tenants, and it does not categorically exempt certain properties from the lien sale.
0:27:10
But this bill is miles away from where we were.
0:27:14
What this bill does is provide many off ramps to small homeowners, primarily black, brown, senior, and low income homeowners so they can stay in their homes and in compliance.
0:27:25
It create it creates what many advocates have asked for.
0:27:28
Including a new opt in preservation track allowing nonprofits to keep at risk housing permanently affordable and insulated from the private market.
0:27:37
An easy exit system for struggling homeowners, a minimum payment system, a new circuit breaker deferral program for low income homeowners, and more transparency around the shadowy trust model that manages and executes the lien sale.
0:27:51
This bill is not the end of this issue and we have a lot more work to do.
0:27:56
I wanna thank the abolished the tax lien sale coalition, the coalition for affordable homes, speaker Adams, finance chair, Brandon, and the finance team, especially Andre and Richard, my colleagues who have been regularly meeting with us over the last 2 years, and especially Ryan Hickey from my team.
0:28:13
Thank you, majority leader.