ALBANY-As today marks the last day of New York’s Legislative session, negotiations surrounding the state’s now-expired rent regulation laws are slowly coming to a head. Albany lawmakers, regulators and commercial real estate organizations are coming to a consensus about what they would like to see in the new bill, which could include provisions to protect tax incentives to developers.
Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, the state’s first real estate trade association in the state, tells GlobeSt.com that REBNY would support extending the state’s rent regulation laws if the package includes several criteria, such as the protection of 421-A, a tax incentive program implemented in the early 1970s to spur development in the five boroughs, as well as the continuation of J-51, another tax incentive program that provides as-of-right tax exemption and abatement for residential rehabilitation or conversions.
“There are a lot of issues that affect housing in the city of New York and we are prepared to consider what the full package is as it relates to rent regulations,” Spinola says. “On the other hand, we have a million or two million people who believe that their homes are in jeopardy. But we think that in the end that if we can come up with a housing program that includes rent regulations, J-51 and 421-A, then that’s the deal we would hope our legislators could figure out to accomplish.”
While not immediately available for comment to GlobeSt.com, the Rent Stabilization Association told the Wall Street Journal that the organization is considering “modestly expanding” the laws. After rent regulations officially expired on June 15, the laws were temporarily extended at the 11th hour to allow more time for negotiations. During that time, Democrats are pushing to limit how much landlords could charge over one million tenants, where Republicans are siding closer with landlords and developers, GlobeSt.com reported last Wednesday.
In a prepared statement, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said despite the progress being made, the Legislature’s failure to act--both Democrats and Republicans--was “unacceptable and a betrayal” of the tenants living rent protected apartments. “Affordable housing is an all too scarce commodity, especially in New York City and the surrounding areas,” Cuomo said after the June 15 deadline passed. “Our state's rent protection laws are essential and any long-term expiration would create a crisis.” He previously stated that more than 238,000 apartments have been removed from rent regulation since 1994, estimating over 130,000 more apartments could be lost to decontrol in the future.
Another deal tied to rent regulations is a 2% cap on annual property tax increases, which REBNY supports. “The property tax cap doesn’t affect the city, but we’ve been supportive of it because we think it sends the right message,” Spinola says. “We know discussion is taking place by the Legislative leaders in terms of what is going to be the package. I’m not sure if there is time today to accomplish all that, so this may not be the last day of the legislative session. I don’t think it will go until the end of the week, but I wouldn’t be surprised if people were there tomorrow and Wednesday.”
A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-64th District) did not return a phone call to GlobeSt.com in-time for deadline.
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