Commercial property tax bills have soared 30% since 2014

Commercial property tax bills have skyrocketed under the De Blasio administration — with the average bill jumping 29.3 percent since 2014.

Driven by increases in property value assessments, the average tax bill is set to hit $111,023 in fiscal 2017, up from $85,841 in fiscal 2013, the last year under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Wall Street Journal, “The property tax rate has not increased since Mayor de Blasio took office, and the mayor has been very clear he has no plans to change it.”

In fact, the city’s overall tax rate has remained flat at 12.283 percent under the current administration, and commercial property owners will face a property tax rate of 10.574 percent in fiscal 2017 — higher than 2013’s 10.288 percent but lower than last year’s 10.656 percent.

But rising assessments have driven tax bills higher. The total market value of taxable property topped $1 trillion in fiscal 2016.

Between fiscal years 2013 and 2017, assessed values increased at an average rate of 6.5 percent a year, city data show, compared to the 6 percent annual increase between 2002 and 2013.

As a result, the average tax bill for large rental properties jumped to $4,128 from $3,269 between 2013 and 2017, while tax bills for co-ops and condos rose to $7,644 from $6,086, according to the watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission. Meanwhile, commercial property owners pay the lion’s share of city property taxes, according to CBC’s vice president Maria Doulis. “Those costs are then passed down to businesses and consumers,” she said. [WSJ] – E.B. Solomont