BY BEN BRACHFELD
Brooklyn homeowners
writ large could see a hike in
their property tax bill in the
coming years, if reforms proposed
by former Mayor Bill de
Blasio and a commission he
empaneled to study the issue
are implemented.
Kings County is the only
one of the fi ve boroughs
where the median “effective
tax rate,” or the taxes owed
for every $100 of a property’s
market value, would go up if
four “structural reforms” of
the city’s byzantine, opaque,
unequal property tax system
were to go into effect. The borough’s
median “ETR,” as a
new report refers to it, would
go up from $0.63 to $0.80 per
every $100 of property value.
The reforms are laid out in
the fi nal report of de Blasio’s
Property Tax Reform Commission,
which was formed in
2018 to study the system and
recommend changes. The report
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COURIER L 16 IFE, JANUARY 7-13, 2022
was released on Dec. 29,
just days before de Blasio left
offi ce and his successor, Eric
Adams, assumed the mantle
of the city’s chief executive.
Brooklynites living in historic
brownstones have been
arguably some of the greatest
benefi ciaries of the city’s
current convoluted property
tax system, because of
a plank in the tax code capping
the amount that annual
tax assessments can increase
for small homeowners. The
plank has kept property taxes
comparably low for Brooklyn
brownstones, especially those
that have been owned by the
same family for multiple generations,
even as the actual
market in Brownstone Brooklyn
has rapidly soared to the
heavens in recent years.
One such benefi ciary of that
system, historically, has been
de Blasio, who owns two row
Rowhouses in Park Slope. Wikimedia Commons/Gregory Kats
houses in Park Slope. During
his 2017 reelection effort, his
Republican opponent Nicole
Malliotakis (now a member of
Congress) frequently cited how
the mayor had a signifi cantly
lower property tax bill on his
Park Slope pad than she paid
for her house on Staten Island,
despite the mayor’s house being
valued at nearly four times
the dollar amount of her home.
The property tax commission
calls for doing away with
the growth caps, referring to
them as “among the primary
drivers of the current inequitable
system.” Under the new
system, which would be transitioned
into over fi ve years,
tax bills would begin to refl ect
year-over-year changes in a
property’s fair market value.
Since Brooklyn would see
increased bills under the plan,
the commission proposed several
instruments to abate the
hike for those who are assetrich
but cash-poor, a category
that includes many long-term
brownstone owners. The
proposal includes “targeted
owner relief” in the form of
tax exemptions on home value
above a certain point, which
phase out as personal income
and property values rise.
With the proposed relief
measures, Brooklyn still would
be the only borough to see median
tax bills rise, but the increase
would be much smaller,
up to $0.71 per $100 under a
graduated rate exemption and
$0.75 for a fl at rate exemption.
The other “structural”
changes proposed in the package
include rejiggering the
system’s property classes,
combining 1-3 unit homes
with condos, co-ops, and small
rental buildings. The package
would also get rid of valuations
based on “comparable
rental properties” nearby,
which it says has created a
situation where buildings are
assessed for a fraction of what
they’re worth. And fi nally, it
would end “fractional” assessments
and value all properties
at “full market value.”
Whether the reforms go into
effect will fall to Adams, whose
spokesperson did not respond
to a request for comment.
Going up?
Bklyn could see property tax
hike under proposed reforms
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