By Howard Koplowitz
The City Council and the Bloomberg administration reached an agreement Saturday to temporarily limit increases in the taxable values of co-ops and condos after borough developments received higher-than-expected property tax assessments with some facing a jump of more than 150 percent over last year.
The city had already agreed to a one-year property tax cap of 10 percent but has now agreed to come up with a proposal that will fix the disparity that co-ops and condos have lived under, Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) said.
Currently, co-ops and condos are treated separately from homes, which in part caused the mistake that saw co-op and condo tax assessments soar earlier this year.
Weprin, founder of the Council Co-op and Condo Caucus, said the city Finance Department agreed to come back next year or in 2013 to push a plan in Albany that would prevent the out of whack assessments.
The assessments affected co-ops and condos throughout the borough, including Glen Oaks Village, Le Havre in Whitestone and Bay Terrace.
“This fixes the problem,” Weprin said. “Co-ops are finally going to be treated fairly.”
The city has no authority to set assessments, so it needs approval from the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fix the assessment system.
State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone), a resident of Cryder Point, which saw its assessment increase by 147 percent under the old tabulation, said the agreement was a “tremendous victory.
“The shareholders and the elected officials fought the Department of Finance and we won,” she said. “The middle-class tax revolt was successful. If we hadn’t come together and fought the assessment increases, people would’ve been forced out of their homes.”
Stavisky has legislation pending along with Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and state Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) that she said would resolve the problem by putting co-ops and condos into their own category for assessments.
She said the agreement is “a temporary fix because long term, we’ve got to continue the fight,” she said. “We look for a long-term solution.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
