Finance Head: Co-Op Valuations Not About The Money

Department of Finance Commissioner David Frankel testified on Monday that massive increases in tax assessments of Queens co-op apartments was not a ploy to increase income to the city.

“Firstly, we did not consider revenue implications when we developed this year’s assessment roll,” Frankel stated before the City Council at a hearing on the professed flub-up by his agency that caused some co-ops to be valuated up to 150 percent higher than they were last year.

“Our sole goal is to value properties as accurately as possible consistent with the law,” he added.

“I don’t know of anybody who believes that,” said Bay Terrace Community Alliance President Warren Schreiber, also of the The Presidents Co-op Council group. “This was about raising income for the city — this was a backdoor tax."

After months of inquiry from the group of co-op presidents and council members, the Department of Finance responded by blaming the skyrocketed valuations on a computer glitch.

The glitch, according to members of the Council’s Finance Committee, allowed for the incongruous comparison of many co-ops to much pricier real estate — including commercial properties.

Glen Oaks Village, a garden apartment complex, had at least one unit that was compared to a 20-story doorman building, according to Councilman Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens.

State Sen. Toby-Ann Stavisky, D-Whitestone, who owns shares of a co-op in her neighborhood, testified that her own valuation jumped by 147 percent on the first assessment. Even after a correction lowered the increase to 50 percent, she compared that jump to increases at Bloomberg Towers and Trump Plaza in Manhattan, which had valuation increases of 14.1 and 18.6 percent.

Stavisky's district also cover portions of Forest Hills that have been strongly impacted by co-op valuation increases.

Frankel announced during the hearing that actual tax increases for Class 2 properties, assuming stable tax rates, would be limited to 10 percent.

“All he’s doing is playing with the numbers,” said Schreiber, adding, “When the assessments go into place, it’s spread out over five years.”

The increase, barring lower valuations in coming years, would amount to 50 percent over five years. The DOF had already offered a 50 percent cap as a compromise to The Presidents Co-op Council. The group derided the figure as arbitrary.

“We think [that figure] is close to accurate,” Frankel said.

Finance has not reviewed assessments of apartments that increased less than 50 percent for possible glitch-begotten overvaluations, admitted Frankel.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn asked Frankel to consider capping the increases to increments of 8 percent.

Frankel said he would consider any suggestion by the Council, but worried that imposing an 8 percent cap would be unfair to taxpayers elsewhere in the city.