New Yorkers got slammed yesterday by the third leg of a triple whammy – a 7 percent property-tax hike, approved by the City Council, that takes effect on New Year’s Day.
The council voted, 33-18, to enact the stinging increase the same week that the MTA moved to hike fares to meet its severe budget deficit and Gov. Paterson proposed 137 new taxes and fees to generate $4.1 billion for the cash-strapped state treasury.
The average small-home owner will have to pay an extra $118 on a bill that’s going from $3,112 to $3,230 under the city hike.
For co-ops with 10 or more units, the average citywide increase is $162, with bills jumping from $4,305 to $4,467.
Condo owners will be hit with an average increase of $278, from $7,401 to $7,679.
After the bill passed, Mayor Bloomberg coughed up the $400 property-tax rebate to 640,000 small-home owners, which he’d been holding hostage while trying to pressure the council to do his bidding.
The council also voted, 46-5, to boost the hotel tax .875 percent, increasing the average price of a room by $2.63 a night.
Legislators frequently had to strain to explain their reasons for increasing taxes in a collapsing economy.
“I’m drawing the line here,” declared Councilman Al Vann (D-Brooklyn). “I’m going to vote for this, but I’m not going to vote for any other property tax, no matter what the circumstances might be. I do it because I think this is an opportunity to stop it once and for all.”
Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) said, long term, city government was simply too large for the resources available.
“We cannot tax our way out of this budget mess,” he said, describing that as the easy way out.
“The hard work is getting into the agencies and going piece by piece and taking out the parts we do not need.”
Council Speaker Christine Quinn called the tax hike a necessary evil to help steady the city’s finances.
“They’re tough decisions,” she said. “They’re choices we would rather not make. But I think they are the right ones to make as our city moves forward and moves its way through the terrible recession we’re in.”
Bloomberg praised the council, and even contended that the rebate – which on Wednesday he said the city couldn’t afford – would pump $250 million into the battered local economy.
“We will not repeat the mistakes of the 1970s, which crippled the city’s finances and nearly destroyed our quality of life,” he said, arguing for the need to maintain services.
To win the council votes he needed, Bloomberg agreed to restore about $20 million in cuts to social services and the City University of New York and to field Police Academy classes of at least 250 in January and again in July.
Additional reporting by Peter Holley