Join Bay Ridge Home Owners
If you are a Bay Ridge homeowner and you are sick and tired of paying 2x’s the property tax of Mayor de Blasio, let’s put an end to this. Click to sign up.
I believed Senator Andrew Gounardes and Coucilman Justin Brannan were going to take care of the problem. Yet, neither politician is able to do anything about it and Mayor de Blasio continues to pay less property tax for two income-generating homes than we do for one primary residence.
City Council Speaker, Corey Johnson also isn’t able to stand up to Mayor de Blasio. Anyone with common sense knows that a standard property rate needs to be applied to the entire city based on the home’s value and size.
Last May, Johnson and de Blasio set up a property commission. Neither Johnson or de Blasio followed through with the commission. It’s over a year later and no one has heard anything about their findings, but the probably all got paid! (See here) This was Johnson and di Blasio’s way of silencing home owners. We can’t get Councilman Brannan to say Corey Johnson’s name on social media, unless he is praising Corey for dancing in a parade.
Corey Johnson’s view of NYC is different than many residents here. Recently, Johnson talked about all of the “free city parking on NYC streets.” (no I am not kidding – see here ). Johnson wants to run for mayor and continue de Blasio’s nonsense in NYC.
When Bay Ridge politicians ran for office, they spoke about the disparity in property taxes. Both the city and state need to take action here. Some of our politicians have put out press releases “to document” that they did something….which basically was just to fool everyone who is busy with life. Nicole Malliotakis did this on the last election, so they know it is possible. (See here)
The recent political move of our politicians to override our Community Board tells us our community board is powerless. (see here) Special interests OWN these politicians. Whether you agree or disagree with the bike lanes, you should be outraged that a letter from the politicians went to the Department of Transportation and in TWO DAYS a special interest group outside of our community was able to get the response from the DOT.
Bay Ridge Homeowners need to come together and be a voice here – regardless of your political party.
We were surprised that Senator Gounardes chose to pursue other interests while in office. (See here) As an attorney, we thought he was going to sue the city on our behalf. Yet, Gounardes didn’t even speak out against a bill which gave NYS property tax break to his friend Governor Cuomo and not to NYC residents.
I touched base with Andrew Gounardes on social media and Andrew responded that he had an idea (for the property tax). I didn’t bash him or call him out because I believed him! When nothing was happening in April, I sent another reminder and he ignored me.
It’s not just Democrats with the problem, as our Republican representatives also misused their power. Golden gave tax breaks to billionaire developers in Manhattan (see here) and Nicole Malliotakis supported that bill. (See here)
This week. there is a Republican election for district leader. Bay Ridge deserves better than the choices Kerri McCarthy has made. (See here) John Quaglione is running for male district leader, even though Quaglione received $60K in support from a Super Pac (see here) and supported a candidate last November who admitted at the Xaverian debate that he took money from developers. Quaglione was part of the backroom deal reported in our papers. (See here)
Why wouldn’t Bay Ridge Republicans choose someone else for our community? We saw what happened to Coney Island after Mark Treyger took money from a PAC. (See here)
Neither the existing Democrats or Republicans vying for office are able to represent Bay Ridge home owners.
You’ve asked me to do something and I put it off because I am the caretaker for two family members. But it’s time to do something. If you are sick and tired like we are, join and let’s see what we can do to get this tax situation handled (maybe a class action suit?). I am not an attorney, but I will research this in July and seek legal advice to see what options we have. I am not interested in running for office – just to get my property taxes lowered.
To everyone who left responses these past three days, I will get back to you soon. My brother-in-law got married this weekend, after being a widower for many years.
If you are in Dyker Heights and you want to join us, please do. I didn’t put Dyker’s name on this because I don’t live there….but you have the same problem as we do. We can adjust names later. We may even need to go to the rest of the district if this problem exists further out.
Hugs,
marlene
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