BILL NUMBER: S7186
SPONSOR: CLEARE
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the real property tax law and the administrative code of
the city of New York, in relation to prohibiting the sale of tax liens
by a tax district in a city with a population of one million or more
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Prohibits tax districts from selling their tax liens to private collec-
tors, requiring municipalities to collect their own debts.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends section 1190 of the Real Property Tax law to remove
authority to sell real property tax obligations to private collectors
and adds an explicit prohibition of that practice.
Section 2 sets an effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Taxing jurisdictions currently can sell their tax liens to private debt
collectors who then proceed to collect whatever amount of that lien that
they can get. This practice can lead to abusive harassment of property
owners who have in a difficult situation already, which is often why
they are in arrears on their taxes. These debt collectors make their
profits off the misery of others, and a taxing authority's inability to
collect on its receivables. Neither of these situations are in the
interest of well functioning government and should not be continued.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of January following its being
made law.

Statutes affected:
S7186: 1190 real property tax law, 1190(1) real property tax law