The United Federation of Teachers has cashed in on thousands and thousands of dollars in sweetheart tax abatements on properties it owns in Recent York City, all while the union advocates for higher property taxes for everyone else.
The powerful union has secured greater than $17 million in savings from property-tax abatements and other credits on its two Financial District buildings, an evaluation of public records by The Post shows.
These have included multiple Industrial & Business Incentive Program breaks, lease abatements from town, industrial expansion tax credits and more.
In 2002 the UFT sold off its longtime headquarters on Park Avenue South and purchased a 340,000-square-foot constructing at 50 Broadway.
It moreover “net leased” a 400,000-square-foot space at 52 Broadway — which left them on the hook for the location’s property taxes.
The UFT has secured no fewer than 129 separate tax breaks and refunds from town Department of Finance since 2009.
In some cases the savings were as small as $1,252.92 for a industrial expansion credit in February 2020 and as large as a jumbo ICIP $689,568 deduction in August 2009.
The town Department of Finance’s publicly available online records only return to 2009, suggesting the sum of all tax breaks is significantly higher.
The years of sweetheart treatment fly within the face of UFT honchos who’ve long argued that property taxes within the five boroughs must be higher — in order that teachers might be paid more.
“As a substitute of asking the wealthiest to assist fund the general public services we deserve, the state budget has been kept on a starvation weight-reduction plan because the last recession attributable to the self-imposed 2% spending cap,” UFT boss Michael Mulgrew said in March 2020, calling on legislators to lift a 2% cap on annual property tax increases, which had been implemented in 2012.
In 2014 the union called for town to boost “absurdly low real estate taxes” on out-of-state landlords to secure more education funding.
Yet the UFT filed not less than 33 “tax certiorari” lawsuits against Recent York City since 2003 to have its property tax bill reduced.
The union has argued town assessments were “unjust, erroneous, illegal, illegal, excessive and unequal.”
The will for tax relief also extends to their most senior officials’ private homes. Randi Weingarten, a former UFT boss who now serves as president of the American Federation of Teachers, has filed not less than two lawsuits — in 2014 and 2021 — contesting property taxes on a $1.55 million East Hampton home she co-owns together with her sister, based on East Hampton property assessment rolls. Each cases were settled.
Sarcastically, while getting mega tax breaks from town, town also pays the union to lease space in its buildings.
The UFT has reaped greater than $6.2 million in rent and other payments from city offices since 2010, based on data from town comptroller’s office.
The Department of Education was the union’s largest city tenant.
The UFT controls each buildings under nonprofit holding corporations — 50 Broadway Realty Corp. and 52 Broadway Realty Corp.
Mulgrew is listed because the principal officer of each, based on their most up-to-date 990 tax forms. As 501(c)(2) organizations, each buildings are also exempt from paying federal income taxes.
“The town tax code provides provisions for tax relief which apply to owners of real property. As a part of preserving union resources, the UFT has participated in these programs,” a UFT spokesman told The Post.
Critics said the lover tax deals were a blatant double standard.
“Ask any teacher, firefighter, or police officer on Staten Island whether or not they can afford a property tax hike. It’s unconscionable that some people think hard-working taxpayers are ATMs with infinite funds when the reality is that if properties just like the ones owned by UFT paid their justifiable share, the burden wouldn’t be falling on the center class,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told The Post.
