The city finance commissioner came under fire yesterday for his agency’s billing screw-ups involving tax breaks for senior citizens.
Council members lambasted Commissioner David Frankel for mailing 15,000 erroneous property-tax bills that neglected to credit landlords for the Senior Citizens Rent Increase Exemption — an error The Post first reported in August.
Frankel admitted that every single SCRIE bill mailed in July was flawed and that the city ended up collecting $43 million that it shouldn’t have. The city will either credit the property owners or give them a refund.
“To the best of my knowledge, every statement of account for the 15,000 buildings for July was wrong,” he said.
“That’s staggering. I need to take like a moment to actually digest that,” Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan) said during a hearing. She later called the $43 million a “tax-free loan” landlords unwittingly paid the city.