Monday, April 18, 2011

Letter to the Editor: "Where is fairness?"

Staten Island Advance (New York)

April 11, 2011 Monday

Dear Editor,
Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees bought a new $6-million condo in Manhattan and will pay only $1,200 the first year in New York City real estate taxes because the City Council saw fit to leave the 421-a tax abatement in place for the mega-wealthy of Manhattan.

Yet the City Council allowed the 421-b tax abatement to expire. Therefore, anyone buying a new $450,000 home anywhere in the boroughs will have to pay about $5,000, or four times what A-Rod will pay in real estate taxes.

I own a home in Staten Island with a market value of less than $1 million, and my real estate taxes are $9,500. (My taxes doubled during the Bloomberg regime.)

In the Wall Street Journal of March 30, there is a story about a townhouse in Gramercy Park worth $23.9 million that has real estate taxes of $24,000. If I do the math correctly, shouldn't that townhouse owner be paying $237,500 if his house is worth 25 times what my home is worth?

The mega-rich get huge real estate tax breaks and the City is laying off teachers. Where is the fairness?

M. L. PUCCIARELLI
SILVER LAKE

2 comments:

Girardi's Binder said...

Oh yeah, Mr. Pucciarelli ? Answer me one thing... what's YOUR wOBA ?

Exactly.

A former Executive at Halliburton said...

John Buehner ( Boner?)...... I don't know how to spell his name, but I do note his neckties..... says, with great relief and sincerity, that Americans are dumb enough to vote for the Republican, " anti-tax" platform, not realizing that only the super rich benefit.

Who said anything about fairness?

Republican supplicants vote against their own best interests all the time. Ever read, " What's The Matter With Kansas?"

It will tell you all you need to know.

That is the brilliance of the republican strategists.