News and Updates are posted to the CNYC Home Page.

Today's CRAINS reports that the Department of Finance is preparing letters to advise home owners in New York City cooperatives and condominiums that it will reclaim the 17.5% or 25% property tax abatement that it had deducted from property tax bills for July 1st payment, now that the legislation extending the abatement program has failed to be passed by the State Legislature.

No one yet knows what the terms or the timing of the recovery will be. This makes it all the more urgent that EVERY HOME OWNER IN NYC COOPERATIVES AND CONDOMINIUMS should contact their ASSEMBLY AND SENATE REPRESENTATIVES and MAYOR BLOOMBERG NOW to tell them of the unfair hardship that the loss of this abatement will cause.

The State Legislature ended its session yesterday (Thursday, June 21, 2012) without passing any legislation relating to the property tax abatement program for home owners in New York City cooperatives and condominiums.   Fortunately, tax payments due July 1, 2012 include the abatement, because the Department of Finance, confident that some form of extender would be passed, prepared these bills last week to include the abatement at the same level as last year.

At this moment, no one is quite sure what will happen next. Will an additional legislative session be called to complete negotiations on this and other bills?   Will DoF be forced to adjust our October or January bills to recapture unauthorized abatements?  No one knows.

But you can be sure that CNYC and its Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes are keeping a close watch on this vital issue, with the help of our excellent lobbyists.

Please do your part by letting your State Senator and Assembly representative know how distressed and disappointed you are that the abatement program has not been extended. Be specific about the hardship that loss of the abatement will cause the shareholders or unit owners in your building. It is imperative that you communicate your concern to your elected officials to rivet their attention on the importance of this extender.

1. ABATEMENT WILL BE ON PROPERTY TAX BILLS. We have been advised by the Departrment of Finance that property tax bills for July payment WILL include abatements for home owners in cooperatives and condominiums that have received in the past. As in the past, once final legislation is passed, DOF will make any necessary adjustments on January bills.

2. STAR Adjusted Downward. State Legislation had capped STAR increases at 2%. July property tax bills will include the retroactive adjustment for 2011. DOF will shortly send a report to contacts (usuallly the managing agent) of cooperative with a list of these adjustments. There is no necessity to make any adjustments at this time; they can be done in the context of the distribution of the 2012/2013 abatement.

The property tax abatement for home owners in NYC cooperatives and condominiums is due to sunset on June 30, 2012 Since the City had failed to offer any ‘long term plan for property tax fairness by February 2011’ as mandated in the 2008 legislation, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senator Martin Golden had introduced A.10071 and S.7091 respectively, to extend the abatement program for four more years and giving the City until February of 2016 to produce the long awaited long term plan for property tax fairness.

If this important legislation is not enacted into law in the next three weeks, the Department of Finance will have no legal mandate to include the abatement in Property Tax Bills for July payment. These bills will require payment from every condominium unit owner and every housing cooperative in the city at FULL, UNABATED PROPERTY TAX LEVEL causing immediate as well as long term cash flow problems for many.

CNYC has long pushed for property tax reform to deal fairly with all NYC tax payers. It was our expectation that the City would lead a transparent process to arrive at a better overall property tax system, a process that would include opportunities for all affected parties to make comments and contributions, a process that would actively seek input from the Independent Budget Office, from the Real Estate Board of New York, the Rent Stabilization Association and from CNYC and its Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes.This is a process that needs time. It cannot take place in a few days or weeks.

Please contact your State Senator and Assembly representative again and ask that they work their hardest to have A.10071 and S.7091 enacted into law by early June, so that your cooperative or condominium can experience a seamless continuation of the abatement. Contact Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall, (212) 788-3000, and Finance Commissioner Frankel at (212) 669-2275 and tell them how important it is to your cooperative or condominium that the abatement program be extended NOW, with discussion afterwards.

From Mary Ann Rothman, Executive Director
May 9, 2012

PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENT EXTENDER LEGISLATION
INTRODUCED IN ASSEMBLY (A.10071) & SENATE (S.7091)
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced A.10071 to extend the property tax abatement for home owners in New York City cooperatives and condominiums to June 30, 2016.  Senator Martin Golden has introduced necessary companion legislation– S. 7091 in the State Senate.

For the abatement program to be continued seamlessly into the tax bills for July, 2012, A.10071/S.7091 will have to have been signed into law by the beginning of  June,  when the NYC Department of Finance begins preparing our tax bills. 

TAKE ACTION TODAY IN SUPPORT OF THE EXTENDER
YOUR help is urgently needed to urge your Albany legislators to pass this vital legislation at once.  Turn the page for sample letters and instructions on finding your lawmaker.  Send a succinct  e-mail message urging swift passage of the appropriate bill and follow up with your version of the sample letters (see links below).     

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

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A Brief History of the Abatement Program

The Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes  was founded in 1990to work for fair and equitable property taxes for all New York City taxpayers.     

*In 1993, a blue-ribbon commission appointed by Mayor Dinkins acknowledged that homeowners in New York City cooperatives and condominiums pay more than their fair share of property taxes. 

*In 1996, Mayor Giuliani and the City Council together called for tax reform. A three-year property tax abatement was instituted for homeowners in cooperatives and condominiums, and the City was to produce a long term plan for tax fairness. 

*In August, 1999, September 2001, May 2004 and June 2008 the abatement program was extended for two, then three then four years (twice) until June 30, 2012. In 2004 and 2008, extender legislation was passed early enough to provide for a seamless transition (prior extenders were not signed into law until after the start of the fiscal year, so full taxes were collected in July and October, with adjustments made on January and April bills).

With an outpouring of support for A.10071/S.7091, the Action Committee hopes for swift passage of this important extender legislation.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD SAMPLE LETTERS:

• WORD(.doc) FORMAT
• ACROBAT (.pdf) FORMAT