Bills address real estate issues

Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed six bills into law this month, including one to extend property tax rebates for homeowners for three more years.
As part of the Fiscal Year 2008 New York City budget, property tax was cut by seven percent, and homeowners were given an additional $400 rebate. The new law signed by Bloomberg will extend the rebate for three years.
“In 2002, the city’s homeowners were asked to dig down and help pull New York out of a fiscal crisis,” said Bloomberg, referring to the 18.5 percent property tax hike after the September 11 attacks. “When the city got on sounder fiscal footing, we pledged in 2004 to provide tax relief to homeowners.”
Councilmember David Weprin, who sponsored the bill, said the rebate extension will help ensure that homeowners save money.
“We did a seven-percent across-the-board property tax cut, but because of rising market value, the total amount each homeowner is paying stays about the same,” said Weprin. “With a $400 rebate on top of that for the next three years, we hope homeowners will be able to save a little more.”
Bloomberg also signed three bills that address the growing controversy of overdevelopment and corruption within the contracting industry. One such bill requires contractors to register with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) before building any one-, two- or three-family home.
“Currently, there are no such registration requirements,” said Bloomberg. “There unfortunately are some contractors who do not build according to plans and who engage in unsafe practices that put workers, the public and the adjacent properties at risk.”
The bill not only gives DOB the authority to punish law-breaking contractors, but also requires contractors to maintain minimum general liability insurance coverage.
Bloomberg also signed a law requiring DOB to establish staggered cycles to inspect and maintain buildings, as well as a law increasing penalties for illegally converting commercial buildings into residences.
Councilmember Leroy Comrie, who sponsored the illegal conversions bill, noted that the problem of illegal conversions has risen drastically in the last few years.
“This is an important bill because we’re trying to protect the small amount of manufacturing districts that we have,” said Comrie. “We have to do our best to prosecute law-breaking contracts, and this bill gives DOB more teeth to solve those problems.”
In addition, the mayor extended the Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program (ICIP) for one year. ICIP offers property tax benefits to certain commercial and industrial buildings that are modernized, rehabilitated or otherwise physically improved.
“It’s a huge incentive for developers in the boroughs outside Manhattan,” said Weprin, a sponsor of the bill. “It’s geared toward smaller businesses. It increases jobs and expands existing businesses.”
Weprin said he hopes to see ICIP extended again next year, though he said certain changes to the program are being discussed.
“We’re just weighing different types of tax incentives,” he said.
The sixth bill Bloomberg signed, sponsored by Weprin and Councilmember James Gennaro, strictly limits the sale and possession of graffiti instruments.
Pointing out that graffiti is the most common crime committed by young people, Bloomberg called graffiti a “serious problem” in New York, and a “symbol of urban blight that can instantly and unfairly cast a community as neglected and dangerous.”
The new law prohibits the possession of an aerosol can, tipped indelible marker, or etching acid to anyone under 21, and prohibits the possession of such tools on another person’s property.
“In cutting off potential vandals’ access to graffiti tools, we have helped eliminate the ugly tags of defacement,” Gennaro said.