From NY1:Homeowners who decide to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy may find that they are paying for the privilege.
State property tax law treats repairs to a home in the same way it does improvements, like a deck or an addition. Which means New Yorkers looking to restore their home to the same state it was in before the storm, could see a spike in their property tax bill.
"Many of these people, their position is, 'Even if I do build, my taxes are going to go up. I can't afford it. I'm being taxed out. I'm being taxed out,'" said Brooklyn Councilman Domenic Recchia. "And that's what we in government have to stop."
The issue was raised at a City Council hearing Thursday.
On the heels of that hearing, Council Speaker Christine Quinn came out in favor of changing the law, which would require approval from Albany. She said it is the fair thing to do to distinguish between the different kinds of construction work.
"Clearly, one person is improving their property at their discretion, and the other is trying [to] restore their life and home after a devastating event outside of their control," Quinn said in a statement.
2 comments:
The city is clearly not interested in changing the law to benefit these homeowners who lost their homes because that would mean it could not raise their assessments and therfore, impose a higher property tax bill.
Frankel is a clueless and unsavory Finance commissioner who has no business running a city agency; if people would recall, he was tone deaf to the complaints made by queens coops that the department was unfairly and illegitimately raising assessed values on co-ops using mixed use properties as comparables.
This is called "disaster capitalism", folks. Repairs aren't the point - the system wants to get these people out so developers can make a land-grab. Take a look at the composition of the RRTF - headed by EDC's Seth Pinsky.
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