Loft Law in Danger: Expires June 30
By Steven Wishnia

New York State’s Loft Law, protecting about 10,000 tenants in 5,000 loft spaces, expires June 30—and as in 1996, Republicans in Albany are planning to use that deadline to extort budget concessions from Democrats in the state legislature, especially Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“It’s our secret weapon,” a “senior legislative Republican” told the New York Post early in April. “If Shelly wants the Loft Law, as I know he does, he’s got to be reasonable on the budget.”

The 1982 law gives residential tenants in qualifying commercially zoned buildings the rent-increase limits and eviction protections of rent stabilization, and requires landlords to bring the buildings into compliance with city housing and fire codes. Most of the lofts covered by it are in Silver’s Lower Manhattan district.

Albany Republicans used a similar tactic in 1996, when Governor George Pataki threatened to let the law expire in order to force Silver to make concessions on the state’s workers’ compensation system. That confrontation also served as a test for the 1997 rent-law battle, in which Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) threatened to let rent stabilization expire in order to gain concessions weakening it.

“The only difference this year is that it appears to be the Republican-dominated State Senate that is leading the charge,” said the Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants’ April newsletter. “In 1996, Governor Pataki took credit for the idea of holding us hostage.”

The battle is likely to last until the June 30 deadline, depending on the state of the budget negotiations. Key issues include overall levels of spending—Silver has proposed a budget $3 billion higher than Pataki’s—and money for the New York Racing Association, which operates the Saratoga racetrack in Bruno’s district.

While the state’s right wing is certainly opposed to loft-rent controls ideologically—the Post headlined an April editorial on the subject, “Yes, Blackmail Shelly Silver,” and carted out all the standard arguments against rent regulations—Pataki and Bruno may be simply using the issue as a bargaining chip, as the relatively small number of landlords affected makes it a less pressing issue for them than the main rent-stabilization law was. “If preserving the loft law for another three years is the price of a sane state budget, then it will be worth it,” the Post concluded. On the other hand, Pataki and Bruno may also be more willing to let the law die, as the relatively small number of tenants who would face eviction means they are even less vulnerable to political damage than they were when threatening to eviscerate rent stabilization in 1997.

Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants are going to Albany to lobby on Tuesday, May 18; there will be a meeting Thursday, May 13, at 7 PM at PS 41 in Manhattan. For more information, call (212) 539-3538 or e-mail xcom@lmlt.org.