Property-Tax Changes Imminent for New York Co-ops and Condos
May 25, 2011 — A deal reportedly brokered in Albany to move forward with a 2% cap on annual property tax increases was good news for property owners across the state. The details are yet to be hammered out, but some early reports indicated that the cap would not apply to New York City. Co-op and condo owners there — particularly those in Queens, the site of a major brouhaha over drastic assessment increases this year — had a greater stake in the release of the city's final assessment numbers, which was expected by the end of the day.
Habitat is following both these issues closely and will bring you updates as soon as more information is available.
It was reported last night by The New York Times, among others, that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had reached a deal with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to back the property tax cap, a measure already supported by the Republican-controlled Senate. The tax issue is of particular concern in the suburbs and other upstate areas of New York, where most local school districts rely on property taxes for the bulk of their funding.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the cap would apply to counties outside New York City. A spokesman at the city's Department of Finance said today that the city's understanding of that was based only on published reports, and a spokesman for Cuomo's office could not be immediately reached for comment.
Eric Weiss, a tax attorney and partner at Tuchman Katz Schwartz Gelles Korngold & Weiss, said the proposed cap shouldn't be a major concern for New York City co-op and condo owners. "There generally aren't major swings in the levy itself," he said, adding that the last steep increase in the rate occurred at the beginning of the Bloomberg administration.
As for the assessments, May 25 is the day the city is supposed to release its final property valuation figures in advance of the summer's tax bills. The preliminary values caused a stir in January when co-op and condo owners in northeast Queens found their valuation assessments had increased by as much as 146 percent.
After defending the increases for several months, city Finance Commissioner David Frankel eventually backpedaled, said the department made an error, and said he intended to cap increases at 10 percent citywide.
Weiss said it was almost certain that the city would release updated assessment rolls today, but that they may not necessarily be final. It is not unheard of for the city to make additional amendments in the weeks following the release.
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