Co-founder of Tax Fairness Now New York (TENNY) Martha Stark.
Courtesy of NYU Wagner
For a long time, it has been an open secret that New York Metropolis’s property tax system is inequitable and unfair. This regressive system, rooted in outdated and discriminatory insurance policies, has not solely exacerbated the housing disaster but in addition deepened the financial divide, disproportionately burdening lower-income and minority communities.
Subsequent week, New York’s Court docket of Appeals will hear arguments on a case introduced by Tax Fairness Now New York (TENNY), a coalition of renters, house owners, civic leaders, and public coverage and social justice organizations, that challenges NYC’s damaged property tax system.
TENNY’s lawsuit was born out of necessity. After a long time of widespread acknowledgment of the system’s failings, political leaders at each town and state ranges have repeatedly did not act.
NYC’s present property tax system is a failure on a number of fronts: it’s discriminatory and regressive and violates the precept of uniform evaluation. As a matter of regulation, properties inside every of the Metropolis’s 4 tax courses ought to be assessed at a uniform share of its worth. In follow, nevertheless, houses in sure well-off neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan are artificially assessed and taxed at far decrease charges than some neighborhoods inside these boroughs and decrease than neighborhoods in Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens. The follow shifts the tax burden to those that can scarcely afford it.
This isn’t simply an summary injustice; it’s a tangible hurt that impacts hundreds of New Yorkers, from small owners to tenants who bear the hidden value of their month-to-month hire.
Past fiscal disparity, this damaged system threatens the material of our metropolis, making it more and more tough for working-class households, important employees, and communities of colour to afford housing. Property taxes––one of the vital important bills for small owners––are driving away the very individuals who kind the spine of our metropolis. If we proceed on this path, we threat dropping the financial and cultural variety that defines New York Metropolis, turning it into a spot the place solely the rich can reside.
The case TENNY introduced isn’t just about numbers on a tax invoice; it’s concerning the rules of equity and fairness, and the necessity to put equity over political comfort. It’s a battle to make sure that NYC’s property tax system doesn’t penalize you based mostly on the place you reside or the worth of your neighborhood.
Our imaginative and prescient is obvious: a property tax system that’s equitable, clear, and truthful––one that may function a mannequin for cities throughout the nation. We envision a system the place taxes are based mostly on precise market values, not convoluted formulation that stoke inequities. We search an finish to the arbitrary penalization of communities, guaranteeing that every one neighborhoods are taxed pretty and justly. It’s time to switch a damaged system with one which displays the values of our metropolis.
Martha Stark is a tax coverage knowledgeable and serves because the coverage director of Tax Equity Now New York, a coalition that has sued New York State and Metropolis, claiming that the property tax construction violates the Structure and varied tax legal guidelines. The previous commissioner of the New York Metropolis Division of Finance, she now serves as medical professor of follow at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate Faculty of Public Service.
