TAX REVOLT 2012: CO-OP / CONDO GROUP SETS RALLY TO SUPPORT TAX-FAIRNESS BILL

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In addition, Assembly Bills A9466 ("Provides that assessed values of cooperative units and condominiums shall not increase by more than 3% in the two years following resolution of tax certiorari proceedings") and A9483 ("Relates to payment of legal fees incurred by cooperative corporations or condominiums in connection with tax certiorari proceedings") seek to cap property-valuation increases for two years after a co-op / condo successfully challenges its property valuations, and have the city pay 25 percent of the legal fees a co-op or condo is forced to incur to challenge valuations.

"New York State has tax-cap legislation for all of New York except for New York City," says Mazel. "Local municipalities are capped at a 2 percent increase. Within New York City, one and two-family homes have legislation giving them [6 percent] tax caps. The only homeowners with no protections and no cost certainly are owners of New York City cooperatives and condominiums."

"The reason [the Stavisky bill] died in committee last year was that it was the first year we started pushing on that, and there were competing bills in the state legislature," says Friedrich. "This year we're working with legislators and focusing on this one bill."

To that end, the PCCC has planned a town hall meeting to help rally support for S5118 and the related Assembly measures. Set to take place Thursday, April 12 at 7 p.m., at the Towers on the Green banquet hall at North Shore Towers in Queens, the gathering is not, Friedrich says, solely for Queens co-op/condo board members. "This affects every co-op and condo board in the city," he says. "I would advise [board members] to come to this meeting to recognize what's going on and to bring pressure on our elected official to give more than lip service and to actually fix this problem." Mazel says an invitation has been extended to DoF Commissioner David M. Frankel, who had not responded as of afternoon today.

For those without cars, the best transportation to the meeting is the Long Island Railroad to Little Neck Station. North Shore Towers is roughly a five-dollar car service ride from there.

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