Delivering the keynote address at the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums' 1997 Annual Meeting, City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone stated that while some ground was won last year in the battle for tax equity for cooperatives and condominiums, there's still much to do. He said he would continue working to persuade the Governor and the State Legislature to provide additional tax relief for all homeowners in New York City, including those in cooperatives and condominiums.

"It's amazing, but it seems to me that we spend an awful lot of time just fighting for equal treatment and fairness," said Mr. Vallone at the March 12, 1997, meeting. "But we still have a long way to go."

Pushed to Include Co-ops In Pataki's STAR Program

Mr. Vallone described Governor Pataki's proposed STAR program, designed to reduce school tax payments for homeowners throughout New York State, as both a blessing and a curse. The good news was that it would provide tax relief for many homeowners. The bad news, he said, is that the Governor has slated homeowners in New York City to receive only a fraction of their fair share of relief. "When Governor Pataki first came out with the STAR program, [he] thought it was only $600 million that New York City generated," Mr. Vallone stated, "but it turns out it's more like $2 billion that the City of New York -- strictly from activity on Wall Street with nothing to do with the rest of the State -- has now plopped into the State coffers If you look at that just from a fairness standpoint, New York City collects only 9% of its real estate tax revenue from Class 1. This means the other 91% comes from the other tax classes. Elsewhere in the State, it's exactly the opposite: more than 90% of the tax revenue comes from one-, two-, and three-family home owners."

The situation was even worse for cooperative owners, who initially were scheduled to receive no relief. "The STAR program was going to help homeowners throughout the whole State, but only Class 1 [one-, two-, and three- family homes] and condominium owners," said the Speaker.

Mr. Vallone is determined that New York City homeowners receive tax relief in proportion to the City's contributions. He began by approaching the Governor and pointing out the inequity of this plan. He cited as his example the city tax abatement plan that he had worked so hard to develop last spring (see Tax Action), saying, "using the same argument that a homeowner is a homeowner, if you just took the theory that a taxpayer is a taxpayer, shouldn't all taxpayers who pay property taxes get the benefit of this program? I said, 'Governor, if you don't include cooperatives, it will come back to haunt you.' Three weeks later, he announced that co-ops were in the plan," said Mr. Vallone, noting that, "Now what I'm trying to get them to do is to give more of our tax payments back."

Recognition from CNYC

Martin Karp, chairman of the Action Committee for Reasonable Real Estate Taxes and a member of the Executive Board of the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums, presented a handsome plaque to Speaker Vallone in recognition of his hard work bringing fair treatment to cooperatives and condominiums. Mr. Karp highlighted Mr. Vallone's strong leadership role in developing and enacting the present property tax abatement plan (see Tax Action).

The Speaker sees cooperatives and condominiums as a vital part of the City's future. "When I grew up and got married three decades ago, you could buy a one- or two-family home for $30,000 to $50,000. What's a young couple to do today? They can't spend $300,000 or $400,000 to buy a home, but they can buy a $70,000 co-op or condominium."

Term Limits Battle

Speaker Vallone also thanked CNYC for its help in fighting to reverse the 1993 referendum that imposed a limit of two terms on all New York City officials elected from that time. That legislation will cause almost all of the present City Council members and all borough presidents who are reelected in 1998 to leave office together at the end of the year 2001, creating a situation where novices will have to organize quickly and learn to govern without the benefit of experienced colleagues.

Mr. Vallone had spearheaded a challenge to this system, which CNYC had supported. It was narrowly defeated on the ballot last November. Yet Mr. Vallone applauded the grass roots efforts to extend term limits, which brought the margin so close. "Literally millions of dollars were spent distorting what we were trying to do, which was simply to phase in term limits so that everybody didn't have to leave [the government] at the same time," said Mr. Vallone. "We came within six percentage points of winning, and I think that's primarily due to the support of many of you. We came very close, which leads me to believe that in the future we will succeed."

Mr. Vallone is Speaker and Majority Leader of the New York City Council, the city's legislature of 51 members responsible for final approval of all local laws and most budgetary and land use matters. He also represents the Councilmanic district in Astoria, Queens, which he has served since 1974. Mr. Vallone was first elected Majority Leader of the Council in 1986. His accomplishments in office are detailed on the City Council Web site and the New York Democratic Committee Web site.

Most recently he has demonstrated his support for owner-occupied housing by fighting relentlessly to insure that the property tax abatement for co-ops and condos was included in last year's budget (see Legislative Victory on Property Tax Reform). Because of such efforts, co-op and condo owners will begin enjoying the benefits of these abatements with their July tax bills.

You can review reports on previous annual meetings in the CNYC Newsletter Archive.