BILL NUMBER: S7995
SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the real property tax law, in relation to requiring the
disclosure of income and expense statements upon a petition for an arti-
cle 7 proceeding and imposes staggered dates for submissions of
appraisal reports
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill would expedite article 7 proceeding by reducing the time peri-
od in which tax assessment cases must begin, create a staggered
appraisal submissions and ensure timely disclosure of income and expense
statements.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill amends the section 718 of the real property tax
law as it relates to reducing the time in which article 7 proceedings
are deemed abandoned from four to two years. It would also establish
staggered appraisal report submissions between the petitioner and
respondent.
Section two of the bill amends section 706 of the real property tax law
as it relates to requiring the petitioner of an article 7 case to serve
the respondent the income and expense statement of the property or a
statement that the property is not an income producing property within
30 days of commencing the proceedings. This section does not apply to
proceedings in a city with a population of one million or more.
Section three of the bill relates to the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill seeks to streamline the process and ensure that they are
resolved as expeditiously as possible. It will require that any proceed-
ing brought challenging a tax assessment would have no more than two
years to file a note of issue or otherwise begin the court case.
Currently, once a proceeding is initiated the parties have up to four
years to either settle or file a note of issue. This system of assess-
ment challenges leads to lengthy and often costly proceedings; leaving
taxpayers on the hook for large tax refunds. The refunds, especially in
commercial property cases, can be very large; leading to tax shifts onto
other taxpayers.
This bill also requires that petitioners serve the income and expense
statements on the respondent within 30 days of the submission of the
petition. This will timely provide respondents with this information
which is integral to the valuation process. It also provides for a stag-
gered appraisal report submission process to ensure that the
petitioner's case is set to move forward in the proceeding.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day it shall
have become law and shall apply to proceedings commenced on and after
the effective date of this act.

Statutes affected:
S7995: 706 real property tax law