Those are the major conclusions of a new report on the system called “Footing the Bill,” released Monday by the Community Service Society and the Progress and Poverty Institute, aligning those two progressive groups with fiscal organizations like the Citizens Budget Commission and real estate groups like the Real Estate Board of New York in calling for an overhaul of property taxes in the city.
The organizations will be hosting a “birthday party” panel discussion Monday in conjunction with the report’s release, all part of an effort to prompt mayoral candidates to address a looming issue campaigns have conspicuously avoided.
“I find it a little distressing that candidates are not mentioning the property tax,” said Martha Stark, the former city finance director who is a key force behind Tax Equity Now New York, the group trying to force changes through a lawsuit pending in state Supreme Court. “Maybe that is failure on our part.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of a state Court of Appeals decision that found the city’s property system illegal. Since then, its replacement has “aged poorly,” according to the report — which echoes the findings of many other studies and media investigations in the past.
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