Another group is grumbling about the city’s flawed property-tax system — big-time real-estate developers with close ties to Mayor Bloomberg.
The immediate issue on the table is a request from the Real Estate Board of New York, which represents the city’s largest landlords, to add a tax cap when the city asks Albany to renew the 421a program for rental buildings.
The program, which expired last year, grants a 20-year tax abatement if a developer agrees to set aside 20 percent of new units as “affordable,” meaning for tenants with limited incomes.
Developers are howling that the city has increased assessments so aggressively in recent years that a third of the revenue of some rental buildings is now going to taxes.
They want taxes capped at 20 percent, warning that otherwise those 421a buildings will convert to condos, and 10,000 subsidized units will be lost.
But one industry source said what the owners really want is an overhaul of the city’s entire property-tax system. “It’s bigger than just 421a. It goes to the root of assessments,” the source said.
“It’s not a mistake that some of the most expensive co-op buildings in the city on Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue haven’t gone up or have gone up nominally, while rental properties have gone up phenomenally. It’s a political issue for the mayor.”
Mayoral spokesman Andrew Brent said the city is intent on getting 421a renewed, without saying how the issue might be resolved before the state Legislature adjourns for the summer.