LIU BLASTS LUXURY APARTMENT SUBSIDIES
New York City Comptroller John C. Liu stated the following yesterday on state lawmakers' approval of tax breaks for luxury apartment buildings:
"Extending tax breaks to super-luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan is wrongheaded and shows grossly misplaced priorities. It's sad and outrageous that billionaires get huge subsidies while the Rent Guidelines Board considers significant rent increases for millions of New Yorkers. It's especially galling that the tax abatement in question, called 421-a, was meant to promote construction of affordable housing.
"While most New Yorkers may not know what 421-a means, they do know that housing in this City is increasingly unaffordable and that special corporate interests continue to exploit everyday people."
Background:
"NY lawmakers mandate massive tax breaks for millionaires' Manhattan apartments," New York Daily News, June 18, 2013: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/big-tax-breaks-mandated-millionaires-nyc-digs-article-1.1375297#ixzz2Wa4d2pXG
Liu: High Rents Hold City's Middle Class Under Siege, Sept. 19, 2012: http://comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2012_releases/pr12-09-102.shtm