Lawsuit Claims Property Taxes Are Racially Discriminatory

For four decades, New York City politicians have been trying – without success – to overhaul the city’s lopsided property tax system. Fed up with the foot-dragging and empty promises, a group called Tax Equity Now filed a lawsuit in April, claiming the system is not imposing taxes “uniformly and rationally,” as required by law. Now five city council member who represent majority non-white districts have jumped into the fray, arguing that the system is racially discriminatory.

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Fernando Cabrera, Ritchie Torres, Donovan Richards, Eric Ulrich and Jumaane Williams are asking the court “declare illegal” the city’s property tax system, the Daily News reports. 

The city’s property taxes favor rich and white homeowners, the lawsuit claims, at the expense of districts where minorities own most of the property. Neighborhoods with sharply rising property values pay proportionally less than neighborhoods with flat or gradually rising values; caps on increases also favor the haves over the have-nots. In Richards' southeast Queens district, for example, residents would have seen their taxes reduced by 24.8% in 2015 – or $28,424,463 – if their property taxes were assessed under the same rate as majority-white districts enjoy, court papers show. 

“Why the hell did we need to do this?” Richards says of the lawsuit. “To really push the [de Blasio] administration to look at this seriously.” 

Adds Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx, “The system, as constituted, has no real defenders...yet nothing changes. I've come to conclude the court is the only institution powerful enough to overcome political inertia when everything else fails.” 

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to reform the city’s property tax system when he ran for office in 2013, but he avoided the issue during his first term. He has vowed to make good on his earlier promise – as soon as he wins re-election next month. 

One reason reform efforts have repeatedly failed, according to Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer, is that the issue is “just too political.”