A lawsuit challenging the legality of the city’s labyrinthine property tax system can proceed, the state’s top court ruled on Tuesday, bringing with it the potential to upend how the city collects billions of dollars in revenue annually to finance municipal functions such as policing, garbage collection, and education.
In a statement, TENNY policy director Martha E. Stark said it was “great” to see the top court come to terms with a “universally-acknowledged problem.” For one, taxes are based not on a property’s actual market value but on an arcane, fractional estimate called “assessed value.” Property tax bills are also subject to caps on how much they can grow each year, which artificially lowers bills in wealthy neighborhoods like Brownstone Brooklyn where property values can and do grow tremendously in a short amount of time.