Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 101, no. 2613: Articles]: [April 13, 1918]

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Bill Fixing Realty Tax at $2.00 Passes Senate Amended Boylan Measure Receives 35 Votes to 7 Against—Now Goes to Assembly (Special to the Record and Guide.) The Boylan bill, limiting the tax A LBANY, April 12. r\ on New York real estate to 2.00 and on personal )roperty to 1.10 passed the Senate late yesterday by the ^ote of 35 to 7. The bill had been favorably reported by :he Committee on the Affairs of the City of New York, )f which Senator George Cromwell is chairman, after imendments had been made in the original bill prepared )y the Real Estate Board of New York. The vote in the :ommittee was unanimous, except for that of Senator Michol, of New York, who also voted against the bill when t came up for passage in the Senate. After the bill had been passed Senator Wagner charged >reach of faith on the part of Senator Murphy of Kings, ieclaring that he (Wagner) understood that the bill pro¬ posed by Comptroller Craig, as embodying the wishes of M^ayor Hylan's administration, which provided for a list¬ ing system for personal property, was to be considered ifter the Boylan bill. Senator Brown immediately moved to recall the Boylan bill from the Assembly, ostensibly to reconsider that bill ind the Craig bill along with it. Senator Wagner made no further eflfort to bring about a vote on the Craig bill and allowed the Boylan bill to be passed again. It now has to take its chances with the Assembly Committee on Rules. Speaker Sweet will have the final say as to whether the bill will come to a vote in the lower house before adjourn¬ ment tomorrow. The vote on the bill was as follows: Ayes—Republicans—Brown, E. R. Cromwell, Emerson. Gibbs. Gilchrist, Graves, Hewitt, Hill, Lawson, Lockwood, Marshall. Murphy, Ottinger, Robinson, Slater. Stivers, Towner, Walton, Whitney, Wicks, Yelverton—21. Democrats—Boylan. Carroll, Cotillo, Cullen. Dowiing, Downing, Dunnigan, Farrenkopf. Folev. Koenig, Rams- perger, Sheridan, Wagner, Walker—14. Total ayes, 35. Noes—Republicans—Ars^etsinger. Carson, Newton. Ni¬ coll, Sage. Thompson, G. F. Wellington. Total 7. The text of the bill as it passed the Senate is as follows: For the purpose of enabling the board of aldermen to impose the annual taxes it shall be the duty of the comptroller of said city to prepare and submit to said board, at least one week before the first day of March in each and every year, a statement setting forth the amounts by law authorized to be raised by tax in that year, on account of the corporation of the city of New York, as hereby con¬ stituted, or for city purposes within said city as created by this act, and purposes for which said citv is liable, and on account of the counties of New York, Kings. Bronx, Queens and Richmond, and also an estimate of the probable amount of receipts into the city treasury during the then current vear from all the sources of revenue of the general funds, including surplus revenues from the sinking funds of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city lof New York and of any of the municipal and oublic corporations, or parts of municipal and public corporations by this act consoli¬ dated with the municipal corporation known as the mayor, alder¬ men and commonalty of the city of New York, other than the sur- , plus of revenues of any such sinking funds for the payment of I interest on the city debt of the municipal corporation known as the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York, or the like debts of the municipal and public corporations by this iact consolidated as aforesaid, and the said board of aldermen is [hereby authorized and directed to deduct the total amount of such estimated receipts from the aggregate amounts of all the various sums which bv law it is required to order and cause to be raised by tax in said year, for the purposes aforesaid, and to cause to be •aised by tax such sum as shall be as nearly as possible but not less than the balance of such aggregate amount after making such deductions, bv fixing a tax rate in cents and hundredths of a cent upon each dollar of assessed valuation. Such annual rate shall not exceed, however, twenfv mills upon each dollar of assessed valua¬ tion of real property, and eleven mills upon each dollar of personal property, if any. tangible and intangible, assessed ou the assessment books nf the city. 7vithnut offset for debt or exemption of nnv character unless such excnipfion is tn the nature of a contract be- tiveen the federal, state and citv governments and the mvner of the property, provided that nothing *w this act shall be held to affect in anv zvav t^roperty exempted under subdivision thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, or twenty-one of section four of article one of chat>ter sixty of the consolidated laws. As to the tax rate on real property, this act shall not take effect As to all other until January first, nineteen hundred and twenty, provisions it shall take eflfect immediately. On Tuesday of this week there was another hearing on the Boylan and other bills before the Committee on the City of New York, of which Senator George Crom¬ well is chairman. As at former hearings there were present representatives of various real estate interests and of the city administration. Comptroller Craig, Chair¬ man Jacob A. Cantor and Commissioner George H. Payne of the Tax Department; Robert E. Dowiing. president of the City Investing Company; Laurence McGuire, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, and a number of others attended. In addition to the members of the committee Senator Elon R. Brown, President pro tempore of the Senate and leader of the majority, and several other prominent Senators were in attendenee at the meeting. Following explanations of the features of the Boylan bill and of the Craig bill, which includes the listing pro¬ vision, Senator Brown raised the question as to the con¬ stitutionality of any bill which would afifect the collec¬ tion of the State tax at a difiFerent rate in New York County than that prevailing in any other county in the State. The Comptroller, Mr. Doyle of the Realty Board, and others pointed out that there is considerable divergence between the rates already enforced in dififerent counties under existing laws. Mr. Brown declared that the At¬ torney General had expressed the opinion without hav¬ ing the opportunity to thoroughly examine into the matter that the proposed legislation was unconstitu¬ tional. The Comptroller and the President of the Tax Department replied that the bills offered by the City administration, these bills being the ones containing the listing provision, had been carefully prepared by the Corporation Counsel, who had taken into consideration their constitutionality. If any question still existed as to this feature of the proposed legislation, they said, it was a matter that should be passed upon by the Court of Appeals, as was the practice with other laws passed by the Legislature when a similar question arose. As to the difference between the rate on real and personal property it was shown that the rate was not the same this year in New York City, the realty tax rate being 2.36, while that on personal property was 2.32. The one per cent, tax on bank stock is again dif¬ ferent from the 2.32 rate on other personal property. Mr. Brown also suggested that if the tax on personal property brought in the large amount of money that has been estimated the City of New York might have to pay 10/12 of the State tax instead of 5/12 which it now pays. The Comptroller replied that if this condi¬ tion arose the city would have the money to pay, and would be glad to pay, the increased proportion of the State tax. Mr. Dowiing called attention to the fact that the original Boylan bill had no hsting provision, and that the tax on personal property had been fixed at a quarter of one per cent. The object of the bill was, by putting a very low rate on personalty, to induce property own¬ ers to disclose their holdings voluntarily. He again asked the Legislature, on behalf of the 860 members of the Real Estate Board, who represent as agents or trustees practically all the real estate in the city, for some measure of relief, declaring that the increasing (Continued on page 449)