June Borwick testifies on co-op valuation disparities and retroactive concerns
June Borwick, treasurer of a small Nolita co-op, raises concerns about co-ops being valued at only 20% of single-family homes, the retroactive nature of the tax, and the unfairness of co-op units being discriminated against versus single-family homes. She calls for an exemption for mid-range co-ops.
My name is June Borwick.
I'm the treasurer of a small self-managed building in Nolita.
We have four units.
It's unclear, like it is for many people, which of those will have to pay the tax.
But they each will have to pay, if they do have to pay, almost as much as the whole building pays, which is completely unfair.
Part of that, most of that, is due to the rather unusual decision made that somehow co-ops are valued at only 20% of single-family homes.
We get values on our property taxes, on the notice of property values, and so on, and we know roughly what those values are, and there is no way that our building, despite being a beautiful landmark, is worth $44 million, which is what the
de facto...
Jump of five times for a co-op building for each unit.
I have a couple problems about the tax, most of which I suspect nothing can be done about.
The idea of a retroactive tax where it's kind of an unhappy surprise that something that happened last January
is what defines what has to happen to you next year.
The second thing is,
It's somewhat of a surprise to have a real estate tax being based on market value, not assessed value, both in New York City and elsewhere.
But the third thing, and the thing that might be actionable in some way by the city council or by the Department of Finance, is that there ought to be some kind of exemption.
That enables a co-op that is worth, theoretically, by market value, between, let's say, a million and two million, which sounds like a lot of money.
Frankly, to me, it is a lot of money, can be shown to have a specific market value.
And once they have that, they can be put into the class of
single and two and three family homes.
We live in co-ops.
They are single family homes.
Why there's a discrimination between us and the other single family homes is really kind of beyond me.
Most people who live in a co-op or a condo have a reasonable idea of what their market value is.
And anybody who's either the treasurer or the property manager of the building knows what the market, the assessed value of these buildings are.
And I think those should be used.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Next.