City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has pronounced any new property taxes proposed by the Bloomberg administration for the next fiscal year “dead on arrival,” in a Monday interview with New York Post reporters.

As rumors swell that the city plans to increase property taxes to fill its projected $2 billion budget gap, the City Council Speaker wants Mayor Michael Bloomberg to know that a tax hike is not on the table. Sources told the Post that the mayor’s aides are trying to convince him raising property taxes is preferable to drastic cuts in services. [more]

New York State legislators want to reduce or eliminate local counties’ contribution to Medicaid in order to reduce property taxes levied to New Yorkers, the Albany Times Union reported. On average, 45 percent of local property taxes are sent to the health insurance program. Lawmakers believe that is contributing to the relatively high property taxes New Yorkers pay, and burdening families, and in turn, the economy.

In June, Governor Andrew Cuomo enacted a cap on property tax increases, and lawmakers are concerned that for counties to comply with the cap and fund their share of Medicaid, it would eliminate funding for crucial public services, including police units and infrastructure repairs.
[more]

A tentative deal to renew New York State’s rent regulation laws and cap property taxes for homeowners emerged from Albany yesterday and is expected to move to the Senate and Assembly floors today for a vote, according to the New York Times. The details of the so-called “framework” are as follows: much to the dismay of die-hard tenant-advocates, vacancy decontrol is staying, and landlords will still be allowed to deregulate apartments when tenants’ monthly rent and annual household income reach certain thresholds. But those thresholds are being increased to $2,500 from $2,000, and to $200,000 from $175,000, respectively. Landlords will also be held accountable by state housing officials for how much they spend to upgrade rent-stabilized apartments before they’re allowed to charge tenants for building improvements. [more]

Albany lawmakers have reached a tentative agreement on statewide rent regulations and a property tax cap, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said today. According to NY1, Skelos said there’s a “framework” in place and that an official deal is hopefully near. The state’s rent laws expired this past Friday after months of negotiations failed to produce new legislation that both the Democrat-led Assembly and the Republican-led Senate could agree upon. [more]

The Bloomberg administration is ramping up its opposition to a GOP-sponsored Senate bill that would cap property taxes for apartment building owners whose tax abatements are about to expire, calling it “a large tax break dressed up as housing policy,” the Daily News reported. The legislation, introduced by Senate Housing Committee Chair Catharine Young, would extend the now-expired 421-a tax abatement program for four years, while imposing a 30-year cap on property taxes for landlords whose abatements are expiring and who agree to keep 20 percent of their housing units affordable. In those cases, property taxes would be capped at 20 percent of the buildings’ rental income, and according to Bloomberg administration officials, the city would lose an estimated $2 billion in revenue as a result. [more]

Buoyed by the endorsement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the State Assembly proposed new legislation this morning that would cap property taxes at 2 percent, with some exceptions. Cuomo has been pushing for such a tax ceiling since his campaign, and the Assembly had been seen as one of his most challenging hurdles, since the New York City Democrats that lead the body have close ties to teachers’ unions, which have opposed the cap. Senate Republicans have, in the past, come out in favor of tax caps. [more]

While Governor Andrew Cuomo lobbies for rent-regulation, New York City landlords claim that they cannot sustain their businesses without rent increases for stabilized apartments, according to Crain’s. Operating costs for buildings that are entirely or partially rent-regulated– almost half the residential buildings in the city — jumped 6.1 percent in the year ending March 31, according to New York City Rent Guidelines Board’s annual price index, 2.7 percent more of an increase than in the previous year.

“A lot of owners can’t make their expenses,” said Roberta Bernstein, president of non-profit organization Small Property Owners of New York. “We keep on getting strangled.”

Owners say they are facing a dramatic rise in taxes in addition to hikes in the cost of fuel and utilities. Fuel has risen 23 percent in the last year, according to the index, real estate taxes rose 3.5 percent and property taxes ate from 7 to 30 percent of landlords’ income. [more]

Following Governor Andrew Cuomo’s loud and proud declaration of support for rent-regulation, the Rent Stabilization Association has launched a new series of commercials explaining how the regulations only benefit Manhattan’s rich. The advertisements are now airing on local radio stations, according to the New York Observer.

One woman, featured in the commercials, says she rents out six affordable housing units in Crown Heights. “Vacancy and luxury control?” she says, “Not an issue in my neighborhood. Who is Albany really protecting? Nobody in Brooklyn. Just wealthy Manhattan renters.” [more]

In a recently released video, Governor Andrew Cuomo says it would be “a crisis of our state” if the state legislature fails to extend rent laws beyond their scheduled June 15 expiration date (see video above).

He states his unwavering support for the extension and strengthening of rent regulation rules which limit what landlords can charge in over 1 million New York City and suburbs apartments.

In March, Cuomo abandoned a plan to include the extension as well as a limit on local property taxes in the state buget in the face of Republican opposition.

Last month, the State Assembly approved an extension but the issue has gone relatively unnoticed in the Senate. [NYT] [more]

A new program to aid struggling homeowners with their property taxes and water and sewer bills is also expected to generate additional revenue for the city, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Lien Sale Reform and Authorization Act, approved by the City Council this week, allows the city to sell liens on two- and three-family homes with up to $2,000 in unpaid bills. The city has been making around $40 million per year off of lien sales since it began selling liens to investors in the 1990s, but until now, it has only been able to sell liens on debts of up to $1,000, and only on single-family homes. [more]