NYC’s ‘opaque and arcane’ property tax system may get major overhaul

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New York’s byzantine property tax system must become “more fair, predictable and transparent”

Nearly two years after Mayor Bill de Blasio convened a group to evaluate the city’s often bizarre and unfair property tax system, that panel has finally released a preliminary report with recommendations for fixing the system. The big takeaway? Taxes must change to “fundamentally shift the tax burden to those wealthier neighborhoods and lessen it for low- and moderate-income homeowners,” according to the New York Times.

Under the current system, “there can be vast differences in how properties are classified, valued, and assessed,” according to the preliminary report. The example the Times uses: The property taxes on an $8 million home in Park Slope would be roughly the same as a $2 million one in Riverdale, despite the enormous difference in the market value of both properties.

The commission’s preliminary report recommends changing that by assessing each property at its full market value; it also recommends measures to lessen the burden on low-income property owners, and a reevaluation of the rules every 10 years, among other things.

And in other news…

• A cyclist was killed by a truck in Brooklyn, marking the first cyclist death of 2020.
• The condo rising on the corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street—the site of the 2015 East Village gas explosion—has been partially unveiled.
• And construction on NYC’s first Virgin Hotel in Nomad is moving right along.
• State lawmakers want to figure out why people are leaving New York. (Can they also figure out why the “Why I’m leaving New York” essay is still so popular?)
• Townhouse sales were way, way down in 2019.
• Some people live with the same roommates for years on end, and the Times is on it. Similarly, some people have communal living situations that they actually enjoy, and the Post is on it.
• City Council speaker Corey Johnson wants the state to kick in more money to fund homelessness prevention services in the city.