State Legislature Passes Rent Control – With
the State’s rent stabilization law set to expire on Saturday, both the
Senate and Assembly today passed and the Governor signed into law legislation
that includes a number of tenant protections and expands the local
option for rent stabilization statewide. (Currently, the law applies
only to New York City, Nassau, Rockland and Westchester counties, where
34 cities and villages have previously opted into the program.) Rent
stabilization applies to non-rent controlled apartments in buildings of
six or more units built before January 1, 1974, in any city, village or
town that has declared an emergency and adopted the Emergency Tenant
Protection Act (ETPA) via a resolution of the governing board after
having held a public hearing with at least 10 days public notice.
Unlike the rent stabilization in the past which expired every four
years, this legislation would make the provisions permanent.
In order for rents to be placed under regulation, there has to be a
rental vacancy rate of less than 5% for all or any class or classes of
rental housing accommodations, as determined by a vacancy study
commissioned and paid for by the municipality. Certain types of housing
accommodations are not included in the provisions of ETPA, for example:
housing accommodations in buildings containing less than six dwelling
units; rent controlled apartments; motor courts; tourist homes;
nonprofit units; governmentally supervised housing; and housing
accommodations in buildings completed on, or after, January 1, 1974.
Some municipalities limit ETPA to buildings of a specific size, for
instance, buildings with 20 or more units.
When a building is rent stabilized under ETPA, the annual allowable
rental increases are determined by the County Rent Guidelines Board
(which each county has to form once a municipality within it opts into
the ETPA). Additionally, the operation of rent stabilized units is
regulated by rules promulgated by the New York State Department of
Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). These rules establish requirements
for lease renewals, establish building maintenance standards and
penalties, and provide processes for building owners to recover the cost
of capital improvements through bounded rental increases.
Several Legislative Issues Remain Uncertain (including Transportation Funding) –
The fate of the supplemental capital bill continues to be uncertain as
it will likely be part of the end of session scramble by the Senate,
Assembly and the Governor to get their legislative priorities passed.
In addition, still outstanding and of interest to NYCOM are the following issues:
Recreational Marijuana – While the proposal currently being discussed (A. 1617-B – Peoples-Stokes / S. 1527-B – Krueger)
does allow cities, villages and towns to opt out of allowing for the
cultivation, processing, distribution and sale of marijuana within their
jurisdiction (subject to a mandatory referendum), it does not provide a
direct revenue stream to such communities. NYCOM is therefore opposed for the reasons outlined here.
Electric Scooters and Bicycles – A deal has been struck (A. 7431-A - Rozic) to legalize electric bicycles and scooters which includes language NYCOM fought for that provides for local opt-out and regulation within the boundaries of the municipality.
Prevailing Wage – There continues to be talk
of expanding prevailing wage laws beyond purely public projects although
the details are still very much in flux. The coalition NYCOM
has been working with to fight such expansion is calling for a series
of legislative hearings prior to any legislative action taking place.
MWBE – While it is unclear where things are heading with regard to changes to the State’s MWBE program, language has been proposed (A. 7814 – Bichotte / S. 6141 – Sanders)
that would dramatically expand the definition of contracting agency to
include all political subdivisions that receive State funding. This
will confuse local procurement processes and impose requirements that
some municipalities will be unable to attain. NYCOM has issued a memo in opposition to the bill’s passage.
Finally, while the village incorporation bill (A. 7997 – Thiele / S. 5793-A – Skoufis) that we reported on in our last Advocacy Update seems to have stalled, there is a new bill (S.
6473 – Gaughran) that would impose a moratorium on all village
incorporations until July 1, 2021 (including those already in process)
while a State study is conducted on the processes of village
incorporation, merger, and dissolution for the purpose of developing
recommendations for improvements to such processes. NYCOM is opposed to this legislation and will be issuing a memorandum in opposition.
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