An indescribable system
Dana Rubinstein
The most notable thing about the lawsuit that threatens to blow a hole in New York City’s property tax system may be that it took so long for someone to file it.
The city’s tax set-up is widely acknowledged to be irrational, unjust and absurdly complex, effectively causing renters in one of the least affordable cities in America to subsidize an unusually low tax rate for single-family homeowners, and the owners of condos and co-ops.
It’s a system that manages to pull together, in a sort of coalition of the disgruntled, the African-American and Hispanic renter-plaintiffs whose names are attached to the suit filed in February, and the wealthy owners of big residential buildings that generate income from rent, passing on a good portion of the tax burden to their tenants.
In early March, a real estate broker named James Nelson, who sells large apartment buildings, sent around a video to people in real estate in which he talked about taxes and the lawsuit.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/04/8543030/indescribable-system