Valerie Mason testifies on administration absence and oversight concerns
Valerie Mason criticizes the administration for not testifying and calls it a bad precedent. She raises concerns about the retroactive nature of the tax, co-op collection challenges, and the 900,000-property list, urging more transparency and accountability from DOF.
Next is.
Valerie Mason.
You may begin.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chair Gale Brewer.
I'm not here to talk about the tax per se.
I'm here to talk about the fact that this is an oversight committee and that
No mayor or his commissioners are above the law, and they should come and testify.
And the council has subpoena power.
I know the statement that you read, Chair Brewer, said that they would come after August 30th.
I didn't know that people had the right to tell you when they were going to appear to talk about what they're doing.
I think that this sets an extremely bad precedent, and I would hope that the City Council does everything in its power to make sure that the administration
is responsive to any oversight inquiries that you have.
On an additional note, I echo what was said very early on in the public testimony today about how co-ops are going to be able to respond to this.
I think this all should have been part of the initial hearing as to when the tax was being implemented.
I do know people who are scrambling now to show that their properties are either investment properties.
It's hard to ask a
a tenant to show you proof of an electric bill or a resident when it's not in your lease and they're not compelled to provide that kind of information.
So the fact that this goes back to 2025 seems rather like a retroactive tax.
I know that this was deemed necessary because we had a $500 million budget gap, but I think that we should be all New Yorkers and we should not be, the testimony here is really disheartening today.
It shows that people are trying to fan the flames of discord amongst people who live in New York City, and that should not be.
There were 900,000 people on that list, many of them erroneously, and that should not be how the government in the greatest city in this country operates.
And I'm calling for more transparency and that the Department of Finance should come forward and stand behind what it did.
And if they made a mistake, they should be able to say it out loud, and New Yorkers should be able to rely on their government.
And I just think this is an extremely bad precedent that's being set by this administration.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.