By Matt Chaban 11/21/12 1:50pm

on the waterfront

Battered and broken. (Mayor's Office/Flickr)

Zone A Zoning: Independent Budget Office Critical of Bloomberg’s Two-Faced Waterfront Developments

While the Bloomberg administration has largely come in for praise for its Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts, questions remain over whether City Hall made things worse by encouraging waterfront development. The Independent Budget Office certainly believes so in a critical analysis it has issued looking at the seemingly hypocritical policy initiatives Mayor Bloomberg had championed.

On the one hand, the city had taken pains to reduce its carbon footprint as it acknowledges the dangers posed by rising sea levels and superstorms. At the same time, the administration continues to encourage new residential and commercial projects in the very areas it is wringing its hands over. Read More

By Charlotte Lytton 10/23/12 4:11pm

Total Rubbish

Not your average cesspool. (windfucker/Flickr)

Actually New York’s Streets Aren’t That Filthy, Or So Claims City Hall

It seems that trash, as well as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder if two studies of New York’s street cleanliness are anything to go by. Travel + Leisure recently released a much-publicized list that found New York to be the dirtiest city in America. In an effort to try and rebut this filthy scarlet letter, the city’s Independent Budget Office dug into the Mayor’s Management Report, released the following week, that found 95.5 percent of the New York City’s streets here are “acceptably clean.” Read More

By Eliot Brown 9/10/09 5:55pm

IBO: Nets Arena a Net Financial Loss for City

The planned new Nets arena in Brooklyn is anticipated to result in a net loss of money for the city, a new report  from the city's Independent Budget Office has found, a change from the agency’s last report in 2005 that found a small financial gain. The report, released Thursday, comes a day after Read More

By Azi Paybarah 5/20/09 4:12pm

Report: $1.1 Billion Budget Gap for N.Y.C. for 2010

There is a $1.1 billion shortfall in the most recent budget Michael Bloomberg presented to city lawmakers, according to the Independent Budget Office, which just released its analysis of that presentation.
The gap mainly comes from the IBO projecting lower tax revenues than the mayor is expecting.
Also, that gap “could increase” because Read More

By Tom Acitelli 2/05/07 12:00am

Co-op and Condo Buildings Win City’s Valuation Game

When is a luxury condo not a luxury condo?

When the city assesses it for property taxes. Then it becomes a rental.

Under the city’s notoriously convoluted property-tax code, condos and co-ops are assessed for property-tax purposes as if they were rental buildings. This rule, based on the concept of guessing how much income Read More

By Tom Acitelli 1/29/07 12:00am

Sky-High Property Taxes Give Renters the Shaft

Renters, beware! You are about to get shafted—thanks to property taxes.

The city’s Finance Department recently announced that New York’s property-market value shot up 19 percent since May 2006.

The city’s property is now valued at $802.4 billion, up from $674.1 billion at the end of fiscal year 2007.

Higher property values normally Read More

By Staff 1/09/07 1:24pm

IBO: Surplus!

The city Independent Budget Office just released a report [pdf] on the city’s economic health which says that the mayor’s warnings about a projected 2008 budget gap of $3.8 billion “appear premature” thanks to “better-than-expected tax revenues.”

More:

“Based largely on the on IBO’s latest tax revenue estimates, the city’s short-term fiscal picture appears Read More

By Staff 12/15/06 1:19pm

Ratner Faces Fewer Tax Breaks


Quinn’s proposed exclusion zone is outlined in green.

Bruce Ratner’s so-called friends are about to cost him tens of millions of dollars in lost tax breaks because of a bill pending in the City Council.

The stormy debate over the 421-a multifamily housing tax incentive still has a few days to play Read More