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Editorials
Having written several articles on the unfairness of Condominium Law 339-y, it was heartening to read an editorial sharing like concerns.
While pointing out some of the inequities of the law, it should be noted that the editorial fails to mention that countless number of multiple storied condos and townhouses that have Associations, meet all Condo Law 339-y criteria are denied such consideration because they neither applied for such consideration or were built before the intent of the law was defiled.
The following editorial was published in the Sunday Times Herald Record out of Middletown, NY. It is being shared with every State Legislator.
Unfair tax code awaits courage of Legislature
February 25, 2007
Just because they can, developers are building things that look like houses, cost as much as houses, have some advantages over houses but get taxed at a much lower rate. That helps the developers, who can use the tax advantage as a selling point, and the people who buy these dwellings, known as condominiums, save money each year, leaving others to pick up the rest of the tab.
This has been the case for a while, but new examples keep coming up, demonstrating why the state needs to change the laws.
In the hamlet of Walkill, Town of Shawangunk, what once was going to be a $37 million development with 280,000 square feet of business, retail and office space and 600 homes, apartments and town houses along Route 208 ran into lots of opposition because of its effect on a historic area.
Local opponents who did not want the landscape to pay the price now will pay with tax bills instead. The alternative proposal from developers has 172 single-family detached homes that look like any other houses but are classified as condos and, therefore, taxed at that much lower rate.
That's what happens when artificial forces unleashed by illogical tax codes become the motivation behind the decisions that alter the landscape and drain the budgets, all because New York legislators have neglected to pass legislation that would bring this inequity back into balance.
That screaming sound you hear in the distance comes from the condo owners and the condo developers who believe that they have a right to a $400,000 home, for example, taxed at a much lower rate than the nearby $400,000 home that is honest enough not to masquerade as something it is not.
Proponents of the lower condo tax rate claim that because their homes are part of a common property, they do not have as much control as owners of single-family homes do. Yet that argument seems to cut the other way. Condos come with amenities and services that enhance the experience of living there over the simpler joys and limitations of home ownership.
Condos fill up with families, including children who go to the schools, and use services at the same rate as any other housing. Yet when it comes to the property taxes that go to fund all those expenses, condos do not contribute their fair share.
One proposal in Albany would mandate equal treatment of condos and homes for anything built after the beginning of 2008. While that seems like a move in the direction of fairness, it really is not.
It does nothing to bring up the taxes on the thousands of condos that enjoy the tax break now. It even might make them more desirable. Newer condos, at the equitable and higher tax rate, would not be as desirable as the older condos grandfathered in at the older and lower rate.
Most people think of a condominium as a type of construction, a series of attached or stacked dwellings similar to town houses or apartments. In fact, the designation has nothing to do with shape or architecture and everything to do with the legal form of ownership.
There's nothing to stop a developer from building a McMansion as a condo and keeping the taxes artificially low.
In New York City, different inequities with similar causes force renters to pay a higher share of their income for housing because of the way rental properties are valued and taxed.
A 2006 analysis by the city's Independent Budget Office found that the tax laws favored some of the most expensive condominiums and co-ops in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods.
Given the formidable lineup of developers, condo owners and wealthy city residents, there seems to be little hope that legislators will muster the courage to untangle this knot.
The governor has promised to keep the needs of the average New Yorker on top of his agenda. Crafting the pieces of legislation that might lead to true property tax equity might be the toughest challenge he faces.
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