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

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

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

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

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

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

Spotting Glut, Mayor Deflates Condo Cushion

Real-estate developers love Michael Bloomberg. He’s one of them, after all: It was he who finally built a huge skyscraper in the languishing pit that for so many years was the former Alex-ander’s department-store site. His ambitions to host the 2012 Summer Olympics may have gone unrealized, but in the effort he made the West Read More