February 15. 1919





RECORD    AND    GUIDE





199







Realty Board Will Continue To Push Seesselberg Bills

Notwithstanding Introduction of Many  Other Measures for Change in Tax Laws
It Will Demand Limitation of Amount To Be Levied





THE Real Estate Board of New York has determined
to press the Seesselberg Bill limiting the tax rate on
real estate in New York City to two per cent, and pro¬
viding for a one-quarter of one per cent, tax on tangible per¬
sonal property  for immediate  passage.

The Legislation Committee of the Board has waited for the
Mayor's Committee on Taxation and the Advisory Council
of Real Estate Interests. Their reports are in and their bills
prepared. None of the measures proposed will aid real estate.
Both admit the soundness of the Real Estate Board's position
and both propose measures limiting the rate of taxes on real
property. The Mayor's Committee, however, suggests that the
tw^o per cent, fixed tax rate take effect the year following the
expiration of the terms of office of the City Government now
in office. The Advisory Council proposes that not more than
two-thirds of the tax levy in the first-class cities shall be
raised from real estate, but couples with this an income tax.
The Real Estate Board of New York submits this state¬
ment to the Legislature, and asks that in accordance with
the State Constitution, which says "it shall be the duty of
the Legislature to restrict the powers of taxation of cities," it
limit the tax rate on real property, in the City of New York
to two per cent, per annum for all purposes.

The Tax Rate in New York City.
(Manhattan Borough.)

In  1905 was.......................................    1.51

1909 was.......................................    1.67

1911 was.......................................    1.75

1914  was.......................................    1.78

1915  was.......................................    1.87

1916  was.......................................    2.04

1917  was.......................................    2.02

1918  was.......................................    2.36

1919   will  be...................................    2.40

1920   will  be...................................    2.70

The average  net income from  improved  real  estate  is  six

per cent.    A  tax  rate of  2.70  means  taking 27/60ths  of  the





Real Estate Board Dinner

THE Real Estate Board of New York will hold its Vic¬
tory Banquet at the Xew Commodore Hotel, at seven
o'clock this evening. This will be the 22nd annual
gathering of the Real Estate Board. According to Elisha
Snitfen, chairman of the dinner committee, who has com¬
pleted the arrangements, it is expected that the attendance
will exceed that of 1917 by a wide margin.

An unusual program has been prepared for the entertain¬
ment by the dinner committee. The principal speakers will
be W. Bourke Cochran, Job E. Hedges, Walter Stabler,
comptroller of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and
Dr. Charles Alexander Richmond, president of Union College.
The latter will be remembered by those who attended the
1916 banquet for his rather original allusion to chicken and
eggs and his now celebrated verse entitled "While Jonathan
Sits Aroun'," which in the turn of events was somewhat
prophetic. Other impromptu speakers are expected to add
zest to the occasion, particularly as some important legisla¬
tive matters now pending affecting real estate in a vital way
are to be discussed.





income. This is confiscation. New York City real estate
owners cannot continue paying nearly half their income for
taxes. The bills proposed by the Real Estate Board will give
the city this income:

A 2% tax on $8,500,000,000 real property........    $170,000,000

A J4% tax on personal property, $19,000,000.000.... 47,500,000
The surplus  revenue of the general fund........        50,000,000





$267,500,000
Or $70,000 more than the entire budget of 1917.

The budget for 1919 is.............................    $248,000,000

The  normal  increase  in  the  city debt service is

about  .........................................          6,000,000

The increase in teachers' salaries already deter¬
mined on is....................................          9,000,000

The subway deficit will be........................          6,000,000

There must be placed in the 1920 budget for tax

deficiencies more than in 1919................          5,000,000

There will be at least a normal increase in  the

budget   of.....................................          2.000,000





$276,000,000
This would mean a tax rate of at least 2.76 in the Borough

of Manhattan and more in the other boroughs. Such a rate

would be unconstitutional.

Every  citizen,  rent-payer,  city  official  or  taxpayer   should

get back of the Real Estate Board's bills.   They are the only

reasonable solution of this whole question.





Building Managers at Monthly Meeting

AT the regular monthly dinner and meeting of the New
York Building Managers' Association at the Park
Avenue Hotel on Tuesday night, the members heard
Robert Grier Cooke, president of the Fifth Avenue Associa¬
tion, speak on "Organization." Walter C. Martin, of the
Tenement House Department of the Bronx, also addressed
the members. Charles A. Flynn. as chairman of the fuel
committee of the association, reported a substantial im¬
provement in the coal situation. He declared that from
present indications, in view of the mild winter and the
large stocks which are piling up in the immediate neighbor¬
hood of New York City, prices would materially drop.

Clarence T. Coley, chairman of the special committee
which will entertain visiting delegates who have been in¬
vited to visit New York at the close of the convention of
the National Association of Building Managers and Owners
to be held in Philadelphia in June, reported tentatively on
the arrangements which the committee has made. Mr. Coley
said he expected two hundred delegates would visit New
York and has planned to take them on a tour of New York
to inspect our modern hotels, mercantile buildings, office
structures, and one of the most expensive apartments in
New York City, also a medium priced apartment and the
model tenements.

J. Arthur Pinchbeck, of the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Co.; Fred. F. J. Hatcliff, of Dwight, Archibald & Perry,
and Wm. J. Demarest, vice-president and general manager
of the Park Avenue Operating Co. were elected active mem¬
bers of the association.