City Council passes Hurricane Sandy property tax relief for some ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island homeowners walloped by Sandy will have one less bill to pay this January -- the City Council has postponed property tax bills for owners of red-tagged homes until April.

"It's admittedly a small step -- we said we were going to help people every way we can. This is just a small portion of that," Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) said Monday.

And it's just one part of a multifaceted effort to offer tax relief to those hit by the storm. A tax package being considered in Washington would permit penalty-free borrowing from individual retirement plans.

The Council passed the bill to postpone payments, interest-free, for owners of red-tagged properties across the city unanimously at its stated meeting Monday.

Oddo would have liked to see a tax rebate for people whose homes were damaged -- and said Speaker Christine Quinn would have supported it -- but the City Council cannot do so by local law. The state, however, can OK rebates on property tax bills, and Oddo said state lawmakers from Staten Island plan to introduce a measure in the Senate and Assembly.

If that measure is passed, homeowners with red-tagged homes would get money back on the tax bills sent out this month, and now due in April.

"The bills that people are paying are based on an assessment done in May, and clearly the value of people's homes is different today than it was in May," Oddo said. The state bill would offer people a rebate based on the estimated difference in value, he said.

In voting for the bill, Councilman Vincent Ignizio said he wanted to give voice to some of his constituents, including Mike Abruzzo, who lost his Tottenville home in the storm.

"Where his home is, today is just his kitchen floor," Ignizio said.

When people in the Council ask how they can help, delaying the tax payment is just one small way, Ignizio said.

"He said to me, I'm down on my luck, everybody wants to help, and I know in a couple of months we're going to be sent a property tax bill. And if anybody could help with something like that that would be appreciated,'" Ignizio told the Council.

Though he was the prime sponsor, Oddo said the bill passed Monday didn't have everything he wanted in it. He would have liked to include some yellow-tagged homes, he said, and for it to include business owners -- especially since it was inspired by John Toto, who lost his home and his restaurant, and is facing down a $13,000 property tax bill for the business.

"This is a negotiated deal with the administration. They have to sign off on it," Oddo said. "I want to go back and get another bite of the apple for those businesses. We have to help John Toto with his property tax bill."

But Oddo said without the help of Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, there might have been no property relief at all. Oddo proposed it to Quinn who jumped on board, he said, but the "bean-counters" at the Office of Management and Budget weren't enthused.

But people in the administration went to the mayor to work out the very tailored deal for residential red-tagged homes, Oddo said.

"But for the Speaker, we wouldn't be here because the initial reaction to this across the way -- at least some of the agencies, was not good," Oddo said. "And I appreciate the mayor stepping in and overriding some of his own folks."

Oddo said he hoped to work out property tax relief for small business owners -- not big corporations headquartered in Lower Manhattan -- in the Council soon.

In addition to rebates for the property tax bills that have been postponed, Oddo said he and Ignizio will be working to make sure future property tax bills are based on appropriate post-Sandy assessments. That's not as easy at is sounds, since homes aren't assessed by human beings anymore, Oddo said.

"They're going to use aerial photos, they're going to use red-tag, yellow-tag, there are going to be thousands, I think, of people who come to me and come to Vinny and say 'You've got to be kidding me with this assessment,'" Oddo said.

So their offices are working with the Department of Finance to set up a time in the next few weeks when finance officials and assessors can visit Staten Island and work with homeowners.

The idea is simple, Oddo said: "Get in the system and start demonstrating the damage they have to their homes, so that their assessment is correct."

Source: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/city_council_passes_sandy_prop.html

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