Opinion: The property taxes are too damn unfair

Richard Lee is running for city council in Queens’ District 19. Photo courtesy of Lee’s campaign

By Richard Lee

For as long as anyone could remember, New York City residents have had to live with a convoluted and unfair property tax system. 

For single-family homeowners, this has taken shape in the form of a perplexing assessed value calculation. It is a system that is so flawed that two homes, despite having the exact same market value, would pay two different amounts in property taxes. 

Take my house as an example. I live on a block where every house was built in the exact same Tudor style at the exact same time in the exact same design and structure. Yet, every house on my block pays different amounts in property taxes. And this would be okay if the property tax system took into account protecting those who are severely tax burdened, like seniors on fixed incomes. 

But it doesn’t. It is simply a byproduct of our current assessment system.

Co-ops and condos face a different set of challenges. This is particularly true for garden-style co-ops and condos that are common in Northeast Queens. These co-ops and condos, with each housing unit the equivalent of a single family home, aren’t taxed the same way as small homes. 

Instead, they are in the same tax category as large rental buildings. Because their properties are classified as profit-making entities, though they’re clearly not, they pay a dramatically higher tax rate than those with larger single-family homes. 

To make matters worse, New York State does not have a property tax cap on annual increases for co-ops and condos, which has caused triple digit percentage increases in property tax bills.

These bills then have to be split among unit holders, making it difficult for management boards to plan for future budgets.  

One year ago, the New York City Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform set forth several proposals for New York State action that seek to ameliorate these issues.

This includes moving towards using fair market value to determine assessed valuations, creating a new tax class specifically for small residential homes, co-ops, and condos, and including a “circuit breaker” and “homestead exemptions” to limit significant increases on property taxes for the tax-burdened. 

Since then, however, there has been no movement on property tax reform. The current crisis we’re in continues to highlight these problems, and now is the time for New York to work towards creating a clear, more concise, and more equitable property tax system that works for our residents. 

Richard Lee is a candidate for city council in District 19.