Anne Korczak (SPONY, remote) opposes COPA and Intro 649
Korczak, SPONY board president, thanks CM Banks for the electronic registration bill and CM Salaam for Intro 717, but opposes COPA, arguing government policies create financial distress that then justifies COPA intervention. She also opposes Intro 649, noting federal and state corporate transparency laws already collect ownership data securely.
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My name is Anne Korczak, and I'm the board president of SPONI, which is the Small Property Owners of New York.
First, we want to thank Councilman Banks for his efforts in proposing a bill that will bring the HPD annual building registration system into the 21st century.
We ask you all to support the bill, which will make compliance easier for property owners and provide HPD with the vital information they need in a more timely manner and allow the agency to free up resources for other agency tasks.
We also thank Councilman Salome for introducing 0717, mandating the Department of Buildings to inform property owners of permit sign-off requirements.
This will help many small owners who undertake construction projects infrequently and face difficulties dealing with a large and deeply bureaucratic agency that can be a challenge to interact with.
Spony continues to oppose COPPA.
We are being set up for failure due to HSTPA, a two-year rent freeze, filification through the rental ripoff hearings, broken housing courts, runaway property taxes and utilities.
All of these forces create a financially distressed owner, not a negligent owner, and enter COPPA, the government's intervention for a problem caused by their policies.
Today's testimony raises concerns about how HPD can possibly ramp up from 20 to 30 preservation transactions per year to a possible 2,200 COPPA-eligible transactions.
We also oppose Intro 649.
HPD already
requires us to identify a head officer and who to reach in case of an emergency.
Why would listing every beneficial owner in the public lobby be necessary?
If these individuals are not responsible for operating the building, why does everyone who walks into the public lobby need to know who they are?
Both the federal and New York State corporate transparency law requires foreign companies to comply.
And the data is collected and secured in a non-public database.
We are left questioning my new...
Thank you for your testimony.
Time has expired.
Okay, next will be Annie Wilson.
You may begin.