Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Monday, June 18, 2001
Release # 214-01

Contact: Sunny Mindel / Sid Dinsay (212) 788-2958


MAYOR GIULIANI SIGNS BILL INCREASING AMOUNT OF TIME
FOR WHICH COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS ARE ELIGIBLE
UNDER CITY'S PROGRESS ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Remarks of Mayor Giuliani at Public Hearing on Local Laws

The next bill before me today is Introductory Number 861-A, sponsored by Speaker Vallone and Council Members Berman, Warden and Abel. The bill will increase the amount of time for which commercial buildings are eligible for the Progress Assessment Program from one year to three years.

Currently, the Progress Assessment Program exempts buildings that are under construction and unoccupied from real estate taxes for up to one year. When the program was first enacted in 1913, most new construction took a year or less. Today's projects, however, are more complex and can take far longer to complete. Therefore, real estate charges are sometimes assessed on buildings that are still unoccupied and unable to generate revenue, a scenario that discourages badly needed new construction. This legislation will remove this disincentive to construction by modernizing the Progress Assessment Program to grant unoccupied buildings up to three years of amnesty from real estate taxes.

For the reasons previously stated, I will now sign the bill.

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