Cash-strapped New York City is owed tens of millions in back taxes, but the Dept. of Finance is so plagued by faulty records, it may never collect a dime from some of the worst offenders, a Post investigation found.
And shoddy paperwork means that the city, now facing a fiscal crisis, could be missing out on others who haven’t paid up.
The department says it’s been cracking down on deadbeats, and last week it gave The Post a list of property owners it said owed the most in back taxes. All were in default for multiple millions.
But after being questioned about inaccuracies in the information, the department revised its list, admitting to some mistakes.
In recent weeks it has also tried to shame delinquent individuals and firms by publishing their names and amounts they owe on the department Web site.
But many of those records are old, incomplete or just plain wrong.
Among The Post’s findings:
* The No. 1 tax deadbeat, CFX Transportation, owes $10.1 million in back property taxes, records show. But the Dept. of Finance has no address for any property. No company called CFX Transportation is registered with the state.
* No. 2 on the list is the site of a defunct Brooklyn hospital, Baptist Medical Center, which racked up $9.7 million in fines and levies, including one for an elevator in August.
The problem? The facility closed in 1987.
A corporate address listed for current owner Tiffany Associates turned out to be a two-family home in Lindenwood.
* The landlord of a nonprofit Bronx day-care center, listed at No. 3, owes $8.7 million – though the property is owned by the city itself, The Post found.
* The department said last week that Intelliware Network at 94 Church St. owed $6.9 million. There is no 94 Church St. and no state registration for the company.
Asked about Intelliware, a spokesman for the listed parent company, 100 Church Street LLC, said, “I have no idea who they are.” In the department’s revised list, Intelliware was crossed off.
* Reuters’ new Times Square skyscraper, built in 2000 by developer Lew Rudin’s company, owed $5.4 million, the department said last week.
But Rudin’s chief operating officer, John Gilbert, told The Post that the bill was a mistake – that taxes were paid to New York State, and the city should have collected from Albany.
After Gilbert spoke with the city about the matter, the department admitted it had goofed.
The errors don’t mean that millions aren’t owed – or that the city isn’t attempting to collect. The department says some firms on its worst-offenders’ lists are currently making payments.
Still, many deadbeats may be getting away scot-free.
“There could be more taxes that are owed,” admitted Roberto Roman, spokesman for the department. “But if someone does owe and they’ve slipped through the cracks, eventually they will be found.”
Some of the individual taxpayers on the city’s list can’t understand why they’re on it. Others – such as disgraced ex-club king Peter Gatien – are in prison, dead or bankrupt.
Among those listed is Cecil Baber, a retired 68-year-old former philosophy professor and marketing consultant who claims he lives on social security and has no property, savings account or assets.
Baber’s delinquent tax tab? $298,729.55.
“I can’t possibly owe this money … It’s just so bizarre,” said Baber, who says that the most he’s ever made in his life is $22,000 a year.
Baber said he had a tax dispute with the city in the 1970s over an amount it said he owed. After two meetings with tax collectors, he believed the matter had been settled.
“This is just terrible for me,” he said. “I just feel like, ‘Come on!'”
In an interview Friday, Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark conceded that there were problems with city tax records and apologized for errors The Post uncovered. She said updating data was a priority for her.
“We’re diagnosing the problems and coming up with solutions,” said Stark, who took over the department eight months ago and has launched two new units to combat bogus information.
What $10 million buys
The city says that its No. 1 tax deadbeat, CFX Transportation, owes $10.1 million in back payments. Should New York ever collect, here’s what that money could buy:
One-year salaries for:
149 police officers
153 teachers
250 librarians
54 new dual-bin recycling trucks
6 new high-tech subway cars
313 homeless family shelter units
11 ladder trucks for the FDNY
8,000 feet of new water mains
7 classrooms
100 lane-miles of resurfaced city streets