Action Committee calls for action on taxes.

Tired of unkept promises, the Action Committee For Reasonable Real Estate Taxes is making its own proposal to achieve a reduction in co-op and condo taxes as has been pledged by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone.

The politicians have pledged to help reduce property taxes for these vertical homeowners and, over a 10-year period, bring their tax payments in line with those of one- to three-family homeowners.

In fact, the current City budget provides $17 million for such benefits, which are expected to reach $400 million to $500 million by the tenth year of the proposed tax reduction program.

"A commitment was made for implementation in early 1996," said Action Committee Chair Martin Karp, with one eye on the calendar. "That date can't be met without legislation and there can't be legislation without a city recommendation," he explained.

To help speed the process to achieve a property tax reduction for these "vertical" homeowners, the Action Committee is proposing a self-certification approach to verify market value and occupancy. In this manner, co-op and condo owners would sign an affidavit stating they are the owner and occupier of the unit, and such a document would probably be co-signed by building boards as well as the managing agent.

Because these others also have a fiduciary duty to the building, Karp expects nothing but the truth to emerge. "Regulators can provide for penalties for false submissions or future revision of the data on audit," Karp added.

Benefits to each unit owner would be received as a property tax credit - either directly to the condo unit owner, as these are carried on the city's books as individual tax lots - or to the bottom line of the cooperative building, and then be re-distributed to the appropriate units by the boards or management.

"This would reduce property taxes for condo unit owners and co-op shareholders who occupy their apartment," said Karp.

One administrative problem that surfaced when the City Council and Department of Finance were trying to comply with the promise of tax reform was the lack of data as to who actually owns and occupies the units.

But the city already receives income and expense reports from buildings and those include rent rolls, Karp noted. The simple addition of a new column indicating if the unit was owner-occupied would help in the administration of the credits by the Department of Finance, he said.

"In the past, it has been very difficult to [administer] the co-op [reduction]," said Eamon Moynihan, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance, explaining why no official bill has yet been adopted. "It's been an administrative issue and not a political one."

Karp hopes the Action Committee's new proposal will help pave the way for governmental approval. "At a minimum," he said "the city should be completely ready to deal with the legislature at the start of the next session."