Assembly.

An article about three items tied to the city's budget mistakenly confused last week.

Yes, the Mayor has agreed to a three-year progress assessment for new buildings, but wouldn't go to a five-year transition assessment, as the industry had argued. That progress assessment, based on the land value, now runs for a year. It's usually timed by the savvy developer to run from just after the taxable status date of January 5th until just about, by statute, April l5thish.

It will affect the expected real property tax income for the city by a bit over $10 million, give or take. Also, items like brokerage expenses for the new, empty building, may end up being counted by the city on the expense side for costs.

These progress assessment provisions are NOT modeled after the Downtown 421 g program. While an extended progress assessment would obviously create some incentive to build Glass A office space in the boroughs, other legislation, which is modeled after the 421 g program, will provide that additional boost.

That legislation has been sent to Albany as part of the Mayor's legislative agenda. The Assembly bill is A11355. The companion Senate bill S8078 passed last week. That bill number was referred to the Assembly, and could be passed during the one-day session this week.

Also, another bill, S7068, is also designed to boost the boroughs and repeals certain energy taxes used in manufacturing. It was still bouncing in committees on June 14th.

You too can track these bills from the privacy of your personal computer at www.assembly.state.ny.us.