Res 1386-2020

By Council Members Vallone, Yeger and Chin Whereas, The Senior Citizen Homeowners' Exemption (SCHE) and the Disabled Homeowners' Exemption (DHE) programs provide a property tax exemption of up to 50 percent of the assessed value of real property owned by eligible senior citizens or people with disabilities; and Whereas, To qualify, the property owner's income must not exceed $58,399 and the property must be a one-, two-, or three-family home, a condominium, or a cooperative apartment that is used exclusively for residential purposes; and Whereas, The SCHE benefit only needs to be renewed every two years, but the DHE benefit needs to be renewed every year; and Whereas, Failure to renew means that the benefit would be discontinued and the property owner could face a significantly higher property tax bill; and Whereas, In New York City, the number of SCHE and DHE exemptions provided were approximately 48,483 and 2,888, respectively, according to the New York City Department of Finance, Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Report on Tax Expenditures; and Whereas, Additionally, in Fiscal 2020, the number of DHE renewal applications received and processed by the City was about 2,777, representing 96 percent of all DHE exemptions provided that year, according to the Fiscal 2020 Preliminary Mayor's Management Report; and Whereas, To be consistent with the SCHE renewal requirements, the renewal period for DHE benefits should be changed from renewing every year to every two years; and Whereas, Changing the DHE renewal period to two years would alleviate the administrative burden of processing renewal applications each year; and Whereas, Additionally, it may potentially allow more eligible DHE recipients to take advantage of tax exemption by not needing to reapply year after year, allowing them to remain in their homes; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the New York State Legislature to adopt and the Governor to sign legislation in relation to changing the renewal period from one year to two years for the Disabled Homeowners' Exemption. SR LS 14,631 6/23/2020