16 FEBRUARY 28, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Barnwell bill would end repair pgm. that costs tenants
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
New legislation introduced by
two Queens elected officials on
Friday aims to end the Major
Capital Improvement (MCI) program,
which allows landlords to pass the
costs of questionable apartment
repairs onto rent-regulated tenants
across the city.
State Senator Michael Gianaris
and Assemblyman Brian Barnwell
announced this legislation during a
press conference in Columbus Circle
in Manhattan.
“Too many tenants are priced out of
their homes because of MCIs whose
only improvement seems to be the
landlord’s bottom line,” Gianaris
said. “All New Yorkers deserve high
quality, affordable homes and our
proposal brings us closer to that
goal by ensuring repairs are made
without burdening tenants with
unreasonable costs.”
The existing MCI program
was enacted in the 1970s as a
way to incentivize landlords to
perform repairs on rent regulated
apartments. Since that time, abuse
of the program is well-documented,
included being featured in a lengthy
New York Times exposé highlighting
bad business practices of Donald
Trump and his father, Fred, in their
real estate business.
In some buildings, MCI increases
are so high, they increase rent
beyond the $2,700 threshold required
to regulate an apartment.
“The Major Capital Improvement
program is responsible for hundreds
of millions of dollars in rent
increases on rent regulated tenants,”
Barnwell said. “It is unacceptable
that we maintain a program
pushing middle to low income New
Yorkers out of their homes while
allowing landlords to continue to
make monstrous profits. Under our
legislation, landlords will not be
able to increase tenants’ rents due to
repairs/improvements the landlord
should already have made.”
Currently, MCIs must be submitted
by landlords for approval by the
New York State Department of
Homes and Community Renewal.
The agency’s standard practice is
to approve requests with minimal
oversight. Tenants are allowed to
challenge increases, but have only
45 days following being given notice
of increases to do so.
The legislation would eliminate
the MCI program and would
repeal MCIs issued within the last
seven years.
“These MCIs has been affecting
the community heavily since
1969since1969. Cosmopolitan tenants
along with Woodside On The Move
started to fight these ridiculous
rent increases in 2017,” No More
MCIs Coalition Tenant Leader
Nilda Rivera said. “It’s time for the
abolishing of the MCI’s for all tenants
and taking away the power from all
greedy landlords.”
Several Queens organizations
such as Woodside on the Move, the
Catholic Migration Service and the
Miktown Center are part of The No
More MCIs Coalition which works
with tenant leaders and elected
officials to emphasize the urgency to
pass legislation that would prevent
communities from displacement.
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Although support for Mayor
Bill de Blasio’s millionaire’s
tax proposal failed to gain
traction with the state when the
idea was fi elded as an alternative to
congestion pricing, the mayor is now
backing Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
plan to fund the MTA.
De Blasio released a statement on
Feb. 26 conceding that time has run
out for any alternative to congestion
pricing, a toll on cars entering
Manhattan below 60th Street, and
that he would work with the state to
launch the program projected to raise
up to $15 billion for transit.
Cuomo and de Blasio announced a
joint plan to reorganize the MTA in a
way that integrates funding through
congestion pricing.
“Working New Yorkers struggle
every day to get around our city. We
cannot let another year pass without
action that makes people’s lives
easier,” de Blasio said. “This crisis
runs deeper than ever before, and it’s
now clear there is no way to address it
without congestion pricing and other
dedicated revenue streams. The time
to act is now.”
In August 2017, after Cuomo
determined that congestion pricing
is a viable option for creating a
dedicated revenue stream for the
MTA, de Blasio called for an income
tax rate increase from 3.876 percent
to 4.41 percent on individuals making
salaries of $500,000 and married
couples earning a combined income
of $1 million.
This would only impact about
0.8 percent of the population, but
Cuomo and then-MTA Chair Joe
Lhota decided that the agency did
not have time to wait for tax season
to get funding.
A year and a half later, congestion
pricing is still only a proposal and the
MTA still does not have a dedicated
funding source. The millionaire’s tax
was projected to have raised about
$700 million by the start of 2018.
“The proposal we’re announcing
today addresses concerns I’ve raised
related to a lockbox for transit,
fairness to the outer boroughs and
accommodating hardships. I still
believe a Millionaires Tax provides
the best, most sustainable revenue
source for the transit improvements
our city needs. But the time to
act is running out, and among all
alternatives, congestion pricing has
the greatest prospects for immediate
success. In light of this reality, it is
my hope that critics of congestion
pricing will join me in acknowledging
its necessity.
The 10-point proposal release by
the governor’s offi ce will do away
with the agency’s “holding company”
design dreamed up in 1968 which
separates the MTA into multiple
facets and will streamline the
process of improvements by
centralizing operations.
Tolling equipment will installed
along the borders of Manhattan’s
central business district no later
that December 2020, the governor’s
offi ce said, but no details on how
much motorists would be forced to
pay was released.
Earlier proposals from the FixNYC
panel in January 2018 called for an $11
toll on cars, however.
“Governor Cuomo and Mayor de
Blasio are in full agreement: eyes are
now solely on the Albany Legislature
to fix New York’s broken transit
system by passing a comprehensive
congestion pricing plan in this
year’s budget,” said Jason Kaplan,
a spokesperson for the Fix Our
Transit coalition.
The deadline to include congestion
pricing in the 2020 executive budget
is April 1.
The MTA restructuring would also
save commuters the pain of raised
fares by limiting the amount the
agency can raise costs by limiting it
to a 2 percent infl ationary increase.
MTA board members would also
end with the terms of the elected
officials who appointed them,
according to the governor, and the
capital plan will be reviewed and
approved by a committee of experts
with no fi nancial ties to the agency.
De Blasio also called on elected
offi cials such as Councilman Barry
Grodenchik, Assemblyman David
Weprin and state Sen. Leroy Comrie,
who have been opposed to congestion
pricing from the beginning to accept
the strategy.
Legislature approval of congestion
pricing failed to gain consent from
the state senate at a January hearing,
however, with officials such as
newly elected state Senator John
Liu claiming there were not enough
details to consent to such a plan.
Assemblyman Brian Barnwell is sponsoring a bill to eliminate the Major
Capital Improvement program, which landlords have been known to pass
on additional repair costs to tenants.
Photo courtesy of state Senator Michael Gianaris
Mayor, guv agree on a new way forward for the MTA
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