Hey, no one told me!
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had no idea that, as part of the state budget, the Legislature was planning to pass a bill granting retroactive tax breaks to a single condo complex in The Bronx — and would have opposed it.
The bill passed Monday night and could cost taxpayers as much as $17 million — which is why the Bloomberg administration had it killed last year.
“I don’t know the specifics of that situation,” the mayor said at a press conference early Thursday.
Later in the day, aides said the bill should never have gotten as far as it did.
“The administration believes that it sets a bad precedent when legislation is enacted for specific block and lot numbers, or to benefit specific condo developments,” said mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell.
Albany insiders say de Blasio’s office in the capital was slow in starting its lobbying efforts and seemed unable to focus on anything but securing pre-K funding, the mayor’s signature initiative.
Sherif Soliman, the head of de Blasio’s state legislative affairs office, had been working in the city’s retirement system when he was named the city’s chief lobbyist in January.
One top legislative aide called the city’s Albany operation “well-intentioned, but unprepared, understaffed and overwhelmed.”
Norvell insisted the administration has a good handle on what’s going on in the capital.
“Bill memos are no substitute for real, in-depth discussions,” he said.
“In addition to the Albany team, the mayor and our senior leadership have had a constant presence in Albany. That’s a major reason why we just secured the largest increase in education funding for the city in recent memory.”
Bronx Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, who sponsored the condo tax-break bill, told The Post he notified officials in the administration about it before it was passed.
“They may have been caught off guard that it was in the budget,” Crespo said, adding that he spoke with de Blasio’s Albany office specifically about the 2013 memo that Bloomberg’s staff sent opposing the tax break.
The bill awarded millions of dollars in tax breaks to 204 owners at the Harbour Pointe at Shorehaven Condominiums in The Bronx whose homes took longer than three years to build — making them ineligible for rebates that most of their neighbors received.