By Howard M. Riell
The New York City Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform announced that the first hearing following the release of its Preliminary Report will take place on Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 PM at the Petrides School Auditorium (C-Building) at 715 Ocean Terrace on Staten Island.
On January 31, 2020, the Commission released a Preliminary Report with 10 initial recommendations to make NYC’s Property Tax System simpler, clearer and fairer. The Commission was formed by Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson in 2018 with a mandate to reform NYC’s property tax system to achieve these goals while ensuring there is no reduction in revenue used to fund essential City services.
The Commission spent more than a year analyzing data and examining various reform models that comport with its mandate. Based on the extensive deliberations of Commission members, ex-officio members and staff, the Commission is advancing initial recommendations in this preliminary report that address inequities in the system and provide the Commission’s appointing authorities and policymakers with a roadmap to reform.
“New York City is home to a mosaic of real property, from the iconic skyscrapers that shape its skyline to the varied domiciles that house its 8.6 million residents,” reads the executive summary of the preliminary report. “The residential dwellings, office buildings, and small business corridors that line its streets contribute to New York’s diversity of industry, rich culture, and vibrancy of its neighborhoods.
“Though the topography of the City’s properties may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, there is one common thread that stitches most of them together – the obligation to pay property taxes,” it continues. “While this connection may bind properties together at an elemental level, commonalities beyond that can be quite limited. A close look at New York City’s property tax system will show that there can be vast differences in how properties are classified, valued, and assessed, lending credence to the widely held characterization that the system is overly complex, opaque, and arcane.”
To ensure the Commission hears from all those interested, it is asking that speakers should plan to speak for no more than three minutes. Commission members may use additional time to ask the speaker questions. Elected officials will be given the opportunity to speak first; all other participants will be heard in the order in which they sign up when they arrive at the hearing.
Speakers may submit their presentations ahead of time by emailing them to [email protected] or uploading them at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/propertytaxreform/contact/testimony-submission.page through an online portal.
The Commission will be holding public hearings in all five boroughs and will be scheduling hearings in other boroughs soon.
