Bill Text: NY S05254 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Relates to the residential-commercial urban exemption program; requires the owner to submit an annual certification to the assessor attesting that the property complies with the requirements of this section.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2020-12-23 - approval memo.59 [S05254 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S05254-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5254--B 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE April 18, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sens. BRESLIN, MAY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Local Government -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the Committee on Local Government in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the real property tax law, in relation to the residen- tial-commercial urban exemption program The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 485-a of the real property tax law, as amended by 2 chapter 632 of the laws of 2004, subdivision 5 as further amended by 3 subdivision (b) of section 1 of part W of chapter 56 of the laws of 4 2010, is amended to read as follows: 5 § 485-a. Residential-commercial urban exemption program. 1. Defi- 6 nitions. As used in this section, the following terms shall have the 7 following meanings: 8 (a) "Municipality" means any town, city or village except for a city 9 having more than one million inhabitants. 10 (b) "Applicant" means any person obligated to pay real property taxes 11 on the property for which an exemption from real property taxes under 12 this section is sought. 13 (c) "Commercial construction work" means the modernization, rehabili- 14 tation, expansion or other improvement of the portion of mixed-use prop- 15 erty to be used for commercial purposes. 16 (d) "Commercial purpose or use" means the buying, selling or otherwise 17 providing of goods or services directly to the public, including hotel 18 services, [or other lawful business or commercial activities permitted19in mixed-use property] retail stores, office space, restaurants, bars, 20 gyms, theaters, and cafes. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD06087-03-0S. 5254--B 2 1 (e) "Mixed-use property" means property on which will exist, after 2 completion of residential construction work or a combination of residen- 3 tial construction work and commercial construction work, a building or 4 structure used for both residential and commercial purposes of which, 5 at least fifty percent of the building or structure's square footage is 6 devoted to residential purposes or use and at least fifteen percent of 7 the building or structure's square footage is devoted to commercial 8 purposes or use. Only square footage existing in a story above grade 9 shall be used in the determination of the building's percentage of resi- 10 dential purposes or use and commercial purposes or use. 11 (f) "Person" means an individual, corporation, limited liability 12 company, partnership, association, agency, trust, estate, foreign or 13 domestic government or subdivision thereof, or other entity. 14 (g) "Residential construction work" means the creation, modernization, 15 rehabilitation, expansion or other improvement of dwelling units, other 16 than dwelling units in a hotel, in the portion of mixed-use property to 17 be used for residential purposes. 18 (h) "Floor area" means the horizontal areas of the several floors or 19 any portion thereof of a mixed-use property measured from the exterior 20 faces of exterior walls or from the center line of party walls, exclu- 21 sive of any area existing below-grade. 22 (i) "Story above grade" means any story having its finished floor 23 surface entirely above grade. 24 (j) "Grade" shall mean the finished ground level adjoining the build- 25 ing at all exterior walls. 26 2. Any municipality may, by local law, provide for the exemption of 27 real property from taxation as provided in this section. Upon the 28 adoption of such a local law, the county in which such municipality is 29 located may, by local law, and any school district, all or part of which 30 is located in such municipality, may, by resolution, exempt such proper- 31 ty from its taxation in the same manner and to the same extent as such 32 municipality has done. 33 3. Upon the adoption of such a local law, non-residential real proper- 34 ty, upon conversion to mixed-use property, shall be exempt from taxation 35 and special ad valorem levies as provided for in subdivision four of 36 this section. Land which was vacant prior to the residential or commer- 37 cial construction work for which a tax exemption is sought, shall not be 38 eligible to receive benefits pursuant to this section. 39 4. (a) (i) For a period of twelve years from the approval of an appli- 40 cation, the increase in assessed value of such property attributable to 41 such conversion shall be exempt as provided in subparagraph (ii) of this 42 paragraph. Such exemption shall be computed with respect to the 43 "exemption base". The exemption base shall be determined for each year 44 in which there is an increase in assessed value so attributable from 45 that of the previous year's assessed value. 46 (ii) The following table shall illustrate the computation of the tax 47 exemption: 48 Year of exemption Percentage of exemption 49 1 through 8 100% of exemption base 50 9 80% of exemption base 51 10 60% of exemption base 52 11 40% of exemption base 53 12 20% of exemption baseS. 5254--B 3 1 (b) No such exemption shall be granted unless 2 (i) such conversion was commenced subsequent to the date on which the 3 municipality's local law took effect; [and] 4 (ii) the cost of such conversion exceeds the sum of ten thousand 5 dollars or such greater amount as may be specified by local law[.]; 6 (iii) at least seventy-five percent of the floor area of the mixed-use 7 property consists of the pre-existing building or structure; 8 (iv) the portion of the building used for commercial purposes is 9 currently, as demonstrated by documentation submitted by the applicant, 10 used as such or is in good faith contemplated. 11 (c) For purposes of this section the term conversion shall not include 12 ordinary maintenance and repairs. 13 (d) No such exemption shall be granted concurrent with or subsequent 14 to any other real property tax exemption granted to the same improve- 15 ments to real property, except, where during the period of such previous 16 exemption, payments in lieu of taxes or other payments were made to the 17 local government in an amount that would have been equal to or greater 18 than the amount of real property taxes that would have been paid on such 19 improvements had such property been granted an exemption pursuant to 20 this section. In such case, an exemption shall be granted for a number 21 of years equal to the twelve year exemption granted pursuant to this 22 section less the number of years the property would have been previously 23 exempt from real property taxes. 24 5. Such exemption shall be granted only upon application by the owner 25 of such real property on a form prescribed by the commissioner. Such 26 application shall be filed with the assessor of the municipality or 27 county having the power to assess property for taxation on or before the 28 appropriate taxable status date of such municipality or county. 29 6. If the assessor is satisfied that the applicant is entitled to an 30 exemption pursuant to this section, he or she shall approve the applica- 31 tion and such real property shall [thereafter] be exempt from taxation 32 and special ad valorem levies as in this section provided [commencing33with the assessment roll prepared after the taxable status date referred34to in subdivision five of this section]. The assessed value of any 35 exemption granted pursuant to this section shall be entered by the 36 assessor on the assessment roll with the taxable property, with the 37 amount of the exemption shown in a separate column. 38 7. (a) During the period of exemption pursuant to this section, the 39 owner shall submit an annual certification to the assessor attesting 40 that the property complies with the provisions or requirements of this 41 section and any additional provisions or requirements as may be provided 42 by local law. Failure to submit such certification shall result in revo- 43 cation of benefits. Such certification shall include at a minimum the 44 following: 45 (i) the types of residential use and the total above-grade square 46 footage of such use; 47 (ii) the types of commercial use and the total above-grade square 48 footage of such use; 49 (iii) attestation that the portion of the building used for commercial 50 purposes is currently, as demonstrated by documentation submitted by the 51 applicant, used as such or is in good faith contemplated; and 52 (iv) all such other information required by the municipality. 53 (b) If the assessor is satisfied that the applicant continues to be 54 entitled to the exemption pursuant to this section, the assessor shall 55 approve the certification and the real property shall remain exempt fromS. 5254--B 4 1 taxation and special ad valorem levies for another year as provided in 2 this section. 3 8. (a) The benefits of this section shall be revoked upon a finding by 4 the assessor that: 5 (i) the application for benefits hereunder or the annual certification 6 required hereunder contains a false statement or false information as to 7 a material matter or omits a material matter; or 8 (ii) the eligible real property fails to comply with one or more of 9 the provisions or requirements of this section or any provisions or 10 requirements provided by local law. 11 (b) Such revocation shall require the repayment of any benefits previ- 12 ously granted pursuant to this section. 13 9. If the assessor determines that there was a material misstatement 14 in an application filed by or on behalf of the owners for an exemption 15 pursuant to this section and that such misstatement provided the basis 16 for the granting of such exemption, the municipality shall proceed to 17 impose a penalty on the applicant of one thousand dollars in addition to 18 recovering the amount of any prior exemption granted. 19 § 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2021 and shall apply to 20 properties for which the initial application for exemption are received 21 on and after such date.
