PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENT EXTENDER INTRODUCED
IN ASSEMBLY (A.10688) & SENATE (S.7714)
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced A.10688 to extend the property tax abatement for home owners in New York City cooperatives and condominiums to June 30, 2012. Senator Frank Padavan has introduced necessary companion legislation– S. 7714 in the State Senate.
YOUR help is now needed to ask Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council for a HOME RULE message to Albany supporting passage of A.10688/S.7714. We also ask you to write to your State representatives to ask them to support these bills.
For the abatement program to continue seamlessly into the tax bills for July, 2008, A.10688/S.7714 will have to have been signed into law prior to mid June when the NYC Department of Finance begins preparing our tax bills.
Five sample letters are available for download (see links below), which we ask you to quickly send on behalf of your cooperative or condominium. There is a letter to Mayor Bloomberg; one to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and one each for your own City Council representative and your Assembly and Senate representatives in Albany.
Please send these as soon as possible; please use your own words and give solid details about your own situation.
Click to download the sample letters:
Word Format | PDF Format
A Brief History of the Abatement Program
The Council of New York Cooperatives' Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes was founded in 1990 to work for fair and equitable property taxes for all New York City taxpayers.
In 1993, a blue-ribbon commission appointed by Mayor Dinkins acknowledged that homeowners in cooperatives and condominiums pay more than their fair share of property taxes.
In 1996, Mayor Giuliani and the City Council together called for tax reform. A three-year property tax abatement was instituted for homeowners in cooperatives and condominiums, and the City was to produce a long term plan for tax fairness. In August, 1999, September 2001 and May 2004, the abatement program was extended for two, then three then four years until June 30, 2008. In the case of the last extender, in 2004, the legislation was passed early enough to provide for a seamless transition (prior extenders were not signed into law until after the start of the fiscal year, so full taxes were collected in July and October, with adjustments made on January and April bills). With an outpouring of support for A.10688/S.7714 and for a Home Rule Message, the Action Committee hopes for early passage of this important extender legislation. |
