Bill cracks down on slumlords, developers

A new City Council measure seeks to force slumlords and developers to pay their debts to the city or risk not getting new permits and government contracts allowing them to build. “If they want to build more projects in the city, they should pay up first before they go on and build more,” Council member James Vacca, the bill’s sponsor, told the Daily News. Vacca’s so-called Bad Actors Bill would require developers who apply for new permits to name every investor with a 10 percent stake in the property and certify that none has debts exceeding $25,000 in taxes, water bills, fines or liens for emergency repairs done by the city. Builders would be denied new permits if they owed that much or more to the city, at least until they entered into a payment agreement to reduce their debt. Mayor Bloomberg has not yet weighed in on the bill, but aides say they’re exploring ways to prevent those in debt from using city services. However, the New York Building Congress is against the bill and believes it will destroy job opportunities. “The hurdles to development activity in New York City are greater by far than in any place else in the country, and this just adds to it,” said New York Building Congress President Richard Anderson. “There must be a better way to accomplish this than to add to the development regulatory morass that exists already.” [NYDN]