Last month we said it was time to talk about rent control, and now things are starting to get serious. Sheldon Silver and the Assembly Democrats yesterday fired the first shot in what could be an epic battle for the fate of rent control in New York State. The current rent regulations expire on June 15.
Democrats and Governor Cuomo tried to extend and expand the existing rent regulations during the budget debate, but eventually scrapped the idea when it became clear that Senate Leader Dean Skelos was not having it. So instead yesterday the Dems attached measures to expand the protections (and leave them in effect for five more years) to a suburban and upstate property-tax-cap plan.
The bill would end vacancy decontrol (which lets landlords deregulate vacant apartments whose rents exceed $2,000) and would alter luxury decontrol so owners can't deregulate apartments until the tenant's income exceeds $300,000 and the rent is $3,000 (right now those numbers are $175,000 and $2,000, respectively). It would also limit rent increases for new tenants to 10 percent, down from 20 percent.
It is highly unlikely that the a similar bill would pass in the Senate, so in many ways this salvo was an attempt to get the very-popular-at-the-moment Cuomo into the game. "We need him to join us and use his clout to bring together the relevant stakeholders to make it happen," Silver said yesterday. For his part, Cuomo is rumored to be working on his own deal with concessions to both side of the argument.
With the legislature taking a two-and-a-half week break starting Thursday—they get back to Albany May 2—expect to hear more about this!
