Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 101, no. 2612: Articles]: [April 6, 1918]

Text version:

Lawmakers Take Up Realty Board's Tax Bill Legislative Amendments Fix Rate on Real Estate at 2.00—Comptroller Craig Offers Substitute—Legislature Adjourns Next Saturday REAL estate men who went to Albany on Tuesday of this week to attend the joint hearing before the Senate Committees on Taxation and Retrenchment and New York City Affairs returned to the city considerably encouraged in the beHef that the Legislature will pass bills that will open the way for the permanent relief of real estate from the great burden of taxation which it has been carrying for so long and which recently has been very materially increased. The hearing was by far the most important held this year, because of the large representation of interests af¬ fected by the proposed legislation and because of the ap¬ parently friendly attitude of the lawmakers, and in the general recognition by both legislators and tax officials of the imperative necessity of affording relief to New York realty. It was necessary to hold the hearing in one of the largest rooms in the Capitol to accommodate the great number of people who appeared either to take part in the hearing or who represented interests that would be affected by the proposed legislation. The joint committee meeting was held for the purpose of giving an opportunity for the development of any op¬ position to the bill proposed by the Real Estate Board of New York fixing the real estate tax at L75, with its at¬ tendant proposition that personal property should be taxed at two and one half mills to make up the deficit between the budget and the taxes obtained from real estate under this rate, and the six bills proposed by the Tax Depart¬ ment known as the Boylan bills. Just before the hearing the New York City administra¬ tion sprung a surprise by obtaining the introduction in the Senate near the close of the day's session of a bill prepared by Mr. King of the Corporation Counsel's ofiice, under instructions from Comptroller Craig, proposing the listing of personal property under conditions similar to the National Government's regulations for the imposition of the income tax and fixing the personal property tax rate at eleven mills per dollar. This bill was also introduced by Senator Boylan, who asked that it be advanced to final passage immediately, but this was blocked by Senator Nicholl's objection. Minority Leader Wagner thereupon threatened that if the objection was persisted in he would attempt to prevent legislation of any character for the re¬ mainder of the legislative session. As the direct result of the hearing Senator Boylan, on Wednesday in the Senate, offered amendments to the bill proposed by the Real Estate Board hmiting the tax on real estate to twenty mills or 2.00 per hundred in¬ stead of 1.75, as proposed in the original measure, and making the personalty rate eleven mills, or $L10 per hundred, instead of 2I'2 mills, or twenty-five cents per hundred as the bill originally read. These amendments were adopted by the Senate and the bill was recom¬ mitted to the Committee on Affairs of the City of New York. This amended bill is a compromise measure between the original Boylan bill and the ones proposed by the Tax Department and by Comptroller Craig. The next step in the legislative program will be the reporting of the bill out of committee to take its place on the calendar for final passage. It is expected that this will be done next Monday night. Among those who were present when the hearing began were Robert E. Dowiing, president of the City Investing Company; Laurence McGuire, president of the Real Estate Board of New York; E. P. Doyle of the Real Estate Board; Walter Lindner, representing the Title Guarantee ond Trust Company; President Jacob A. Cantor and Com¬ missioners Louis A. Swazey and George H. Payne of the Tax Department, and representatives of the Brooklyn Board of Brokers, the New York Tax Reform Associa¬ tion, the Association of Manufacturers and Merchants and ether organizations. Senators James A. Emerson and George Cromwell jointly presided. A. C. Pleydell of the Tax Reform Association protested against the enactment of any of the bills proposed by the Tax Department aiming at increasing the revenues by the taxation of personal property on the general ground that these bills would be ineffective if they became laws, be¬ cause their provisions were too loosely drawn and the pen¬ alties insignificant. Referring to the bill proposing the taxation of individual holdings of corporate stock he said that this measure involved double taxation, inas¬ much as the corporation was already taxed on its stock. The corporation having to pav a tax upon the entire issue of its stock it was unjust, in his opinion, for an individual holder of any part of this issue to be called upon to pay an additional tax. Mr. Pleydell also contended that if personal property was taxed in the tax district where such property is lo¬ cated, as proposed by the Tax Department, it would mean, for one thing, that a railroad train would be taxable in any district in which it might happen to be at the date of the tax return. He declared that the proposed listing of personal property, as outlined by the Tax Department, v.'onld net small results because the bill followed the lines of former efforts in this direction which had proved failures. J. J. Merrill of the Corporation Tax Bureau said that if an effective listing system for personal property could be drawn up there would undoubtedly be disclosed over $60,000,000,000 of personal property of which only a baeatelle is now on the tax rolls. If this enormous amount of property could by any means be got on the rolls, and after all exemptions had been made, the tax rate would be so low that nobody could or would object to paying their allotment and the burden on real estate would be relieved. The poor people in the tenements were now carrying this burden in the form of rent payments. The workman who paid a rent of $16 per month was paying about $130 per year out of his poor earninsrs for the cost of government. The Citv of New York. Mr. Merrill declared, is turning in the right direction but the reform looked for could not be accomplished through the legislation proposed by the Tax Department. "There is no such thing as sacred property," said Mr. Merrill. "More than 90 per cent, of the personal property is on the exempt roll. We cannot keep on piling up the taxes. There are now 17 kinds of taxation. The steam rail¬ ways alone pay taxes in seven different ways. Unless steps are taken to relieve the tax burdens in New York City socialism will be enormously increased when the men who are now fighting our battles 'over there' come back and demand that things be set right 'over here.*" President Cantor explained that the bills introduced by Senator Boylan at the request of the Tax Department had been prepared after two months' investigation of the sub¬ ject. It had at first been proposed to tax personal prop¬ erty at 1.50 so as to relieve real estate. The bills were