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Give Us a Break!
What will reform-minded Governor Spitzer do with this
bill? We say he should veto it until the inexcusable exclusive
gift clause to Bruce Ratner is excised, or he should negotiate it out of the bill.
We're going to try to simplify, what is not so simple:
The 1,700 to 1,900 market rate condos Bruce Ratner intends to build in his Atlantic
Yards project will pay no property taxes. This could lead to a loss of somewhere
between $100 million to $190 million in tax revenue for New York City, while enabling
the developer to sell his units at higher prices because buyers won't have to
pay taxes. Bruce Ratner is the only developer in the newly described
421-a zones in the City to receive this huge benefit. Why? There is no answer--not
from us, not from the developer and not from the Assemblymembers who wrote a special
clause for Bruce Ratner into their reform bill.
The Assembly passed a bill reforming the 36-year old 421-a property tax break.
No longer will developers building new construction receive tax breaks when they
build all market rate buildings. Now they must provide 20% of the units
at "affordable" rates in each building, based on a cap set at 60% of
Area Median Income (AMI). AMI for New York City is about $71,000 for a family
of four (AMI for Brooklyn is about $35,000).
But Bruce Ratner gets a special deal written in clause
13 of the bill. For his Atlantic Yards project, he gets the tax break
for his market rate condos. No other developer in the 421-a "Geographic
Exception Areas" (which include Central Brooklyn where the project is proposed)
will receive tax breaks if they build all market rate. Forest City Ratner gets
special treatment to the extent where they only have to provide 20% affordability
across the whole project, not in each building, and their AMI can be an average
of 70%, rather than a cap of 60%. Ratner can then receive tax exemptions
for all of his non-affordable buildings.
Again, we ask, why? All we know is that Forest
City Ratner spent more on lobbying this past year than any other developer
in the state.
Posted: 6.21.07
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