Mayor de Blasio has found a way to raise millions of dollars in taxes without infuriating voters — by going after billboard advertisers.
His administration is seeking to collect the 6 percent commercial-rent tax from companies that tout their wares on the signs, mostly in Times Square.
The decades-old commercial tax is now levied on office leases and brings in close to $700 million a year — but apparently hadn’t been collected from the advertisers for years.
It was only after the prior administration began auditing dozens of the firms last year that the city uncovered the untapped gold mine.
The Finance Department said two firms have already settled for close to $1 million in total, while 22 firms now being audited are expected to bring in $18 million — with more to come.
Yet a group representing some of the 150-plus Times Square billboard renters claims officials only recently broadened the scope of the tax to include them.
“The tax has been around for nearly 50 years — it has never been applied to advertising,” said George Lence, a lobbyist for the Times Square Advertising Coalition. “It just seems blatantly unfair.”
Finance Commissioner Jacques Jiha dismissed that claim, saying the firms knowingly skirted the law for years.