LIC co-op residents face sharp increase in property taxes, end of tax abatement

It’s a double-whammy: Residents of a Long Island City co-op are simultaneously facing a sharp spike in their property tax assessments and the end of a tax abatement.

Property tax assessments at Citylights, a 522-unit middle-income residence at 4-74 48th Avenue, are expected to jump 87 percent in one year, just as a 20-year tax abatement is coming to an end, Politico reported. The city’s Department of Finance estimated the co-op’s value to be $101.6 million this year, up from 2017’s $96.9 million and 2016’s $51.7 million assessments. As a result, residents say, they are facing a 60 percent increase in their tax and maintenance bills over the next five years.

“If the city and state don’t do anything, people are going to be forced out of their homes and it’s having a negative impact on property values,” Shelley Cohen, treasurer of the co-op board, told Politico.

She said the fact that the city compares co-ops and condos to rental buildings to determine assessments is unfair, since the older buildings can’t compete with the flashy amenities included in the newer projects. The co-op board is in the process of appealing its assessment.

Last month, the de Blasio administration announced the formation of a commission to review the city’s property tax system, which many thought was a reaction to a lawsuit that argues the current system is discriminatory and inequitable. [Politico] — Kathryn Brenzel