Sen. Felder Aims to Protect Property Owners, City’s Faces $125 Billion Debt

By Yehudit Garmaise 

   While politicians try to come up with ways to recover the $125 billion debt with which the city found itself at the end of the fiscal year 2020, Sen. Felder argues that the extra income should not come from New York City property owners.

   State. Sen. Simcha Felder wants to make sure that in addition to everything else this year, homeowners do not have their property taxes increased by the city.

       “Our city officials should consider reducing property tax burden on New York City residents as a way to provide much needed relief,” Sen. Felder wrote in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Friday. 

   In his letter, Sen. Felder demanded “at a minimum…that New York City stop any increase in property taxes by owners. Considering the health and economic crisis we are facing, it is the height of chutzpah that New York City would increase property taxes during the peak of this global pandemic, especially after New Yorkers have been asked to sacrifice so much.”

   “Sadly, it appears that homeowners are continuously overlooked, and no help is coming,” wrote Sen. Felder, who did not respond to BoroPark 24’s inquiry as to how he would propose to recover New York City’s $125 billion debt and $2 to 4 billion deficit. 

   “All the while, property owners have mortgages, utilities, taxes, and other expenses they continue to accrue.”

     “By freezing property taxes for all New York City property owners, our city government would provide a small amount of relief for so many homeowners in need.” 

    While Sen. Felder argues that homeowners should not have to provide the city’s much needed income through ever-increasing property taxes, New York City Mayoral Candidate Andrew Yang recently said, that while he would protect the property tax-exempt status of religious institutions, he would raise much-needed revenue for the city by charging fees of private universities, which do not pay property taxes in New York state.

   Mayor Candidate and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s solution to recoup lost funds? Tax the rich.

    “We will ask the most fortunate to pay a bit more in taxes,” Stringer said at a campaign announcement in upper Manhattan. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has pointed the finger for increasing property taxes and sales tax in the city on gentrification.

   “Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio,” Adams said at an anti-gentrification rally in Harlem rally last January. “New York City belongs to the people that were here and made New York City what it is.”

   As for the current mayor, the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the economy, however, he might have mismanaged some of the city’s funds on his own. For instance, his wife, Chirlane McCray burned through $850 million in public money for her agency, ThriveNYC, which is not thought to have been effective or successful in helping New Yorkers who are suffering from mental illnesses.