'New Absentee-Landlord Tax Slugs Poor Tenants

[jot0n0]

Another pass along tax to tenants.

NY Post, August 6, 2003 -- The city's new absentee-landlord surcharge will disproportionately affect owners and residents of buildings in poorer neighborhoods, a fiscal-watchdog group reported yesterday.
"Because absentee-landlord properties are not spread evenly across the city, the impact of the tax increase - about $570 on average - will be felt disproportionately in some neighborhoods," the report says.

The surcharge applies to landlords who don't live in the one- to- three-family homes they rent out - and that means tenants will also suffer, says the Independent Budget Office.

"Because few of the properties facing the surcharge are covered by rent regulations, landlords will be free to try to pass on much of the burden of paying the new tax to their tenants," the group said.

The three neighborhoods with the largest number of affected buildings are Bensonhurst, Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York - all in Brooklyn.

Councilman Charles Barron, who represents East New York, said, "I'm getting sick and tired of this regressive taxation."

He insisted he wasn't given adequate information about the surcharge before voting for it.

"This tax is going to further hurt the poor, the working class and the poor working class," Barron added.

The surcharge will equal 25 percent of the property's regular tax bill.