City Finance Commissioner David Frankel bowed to heavy pressure from elected officials Monday and agreed to limit property tax increases on co-op apartments and vowed to do a better job of handing out assessments next year, according to an article by Erin Einhorn in today's edition of The New York Daily News.
The article said that "the controversy began earlier this year when the Finance Department - using a new computer system - told owners of nearly 300 co-ops that their properties had increased in value by more than 50%, driving up their expected taxes." Mr. Frankel said that "some of those assessments were the work of a computer glitch, while in other cases, the apartments had simply been undervalued for too long," the article said.
The mistakes had Council members fuming. "Taxpayers were ambushed by the Department of Finance!" fumed Finance Committee boss Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn). "Our faith has been shaken by this. It's devastating!" City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said the Finance Department "has shown a disturbing insensitivity" to taxpayers.
Frankel said on Monday he'd fix this year's problems by limiting co-op tax increases to 10 percent above last year's bills.
According to an article by Joseph De Avila in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal changes in the city's valuation methods "resulted in property assessments skyrocketing by as much as 140 percent in one year" and "those assessment increase could lead to increases in property taxes of as much as 40 percent...for condos and co-oops owners."
The article said that "nearly one-third of the large co-op buildings in Queens saw their property assessments jump by more than 50 percent." The article also noted that the city's new computer program resulted "in the discovery that many co-op assessments in Queens - and to a lesser degree in other boroughs - had been undervalued by the city in previous years."
An article today at observer.com by Matt Chaban said that "cutting assessed values on co-ops from 147 percent to 50 percent is like saying you don't have to drink a full cup of arsenic, you only have to drink a half cup," State Senator Toby Ann Stavitsky of Queens said. "Either way, it's poison - and so is this tax increase."
The article said that "the controversy began earlier this year when the Finance Department - using a new computer system - told owners of nearly 300 co-ops that their properties had increased in value by more than 50%, driving up their expected taxes." Mr. Frankel said that "some of those assessments were the work of a computer glitch, while in other cases, the apartments had simply been undervalued for too long," the article said.
The mistakes had Council members fuming. "Taxpayers were ambushed by the Department of Finance!" fumed Finance Committee boss Domenic Recchia (D-Brooklyn). "Our faith has been shaken by this. It's devastating!" City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said the Finance Department "has shown a disturbing insensitivity" to taxpayers.
Frankel said on Monday he'd fix this year's problems by limiting co-op tax increases to 10 percent above last year's bills.
According to an article by Joseph De Avila in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal changes in the city's valuation methods "resulted in property assessments skyrocketing by as much as 140 percent in one year" and "those assessment increase could lead to increases in property taxes of as much as 40 percent...for condos and co-oops owners."
The article said that "nearly one-third of the large co-op buildings in Queens saw their property assessments jump by more than 50 percent." The article also noted that the city's new computer program resulted "in the discovery that many co-op assessments in Queens - and to a lesser degree in other boroughs - had been undervalued by the city in previous years."
An article today at observer.com by Matt Chaban said that "cutting assessed values on co-ops from 147 percent to 50 percent is like saying you don't have to drink a full cup of arsenic, you only have to drink a half cup," State Senator Toby Ann Stavitsky of Queens said. "Either way, it's poison - and so is this tax increase."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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