Get your 421-a facts straight

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Tom Waters’ NY Slant op-ed calling Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s revised 421-a proposal “flawed” is a classic example of Moynihan’s remark.

Here’s what you should know about 421-a:

Fact: Over the last two years, 421-a has accounted for more than half of the affordable housing projects built throughout New York City.

Fact: The revised 421-a program, approved by the state Legislature and Cuomo in June 2015 (and now suspended), improves upon the previous program by mandating a significant amount of new affordable housing in each project.

Fact: Due primarily to the structure of our property tax system, 421-a is financially necessary to build rental housing, which is the foundation of our housing supply and crucial to meet our growing population – 70 percent of New Yorkers live in rental housing and the city’s population surpassed 2020 projections in 2015.

Fact: 421-a has been successful at economically integrating many neighborhoods throughout New York City. Critics like the Community Service Society of New York have failed to offer a single credible alternative as to how to produce new affordable housing in those areas of the city where the cost of land, construction and property taxes are rising.

Fact: Over the past five years, 421-a has produced tens of thousands of apartments, expanding our housing supply and creating good-paying temporary and permanent jobs.

Fact: The Community Service Society’s purported “tax expenditure” of $1.4 billion is taken from the city’s Tax Expenditure Report. That report makes clear that this is neither real nor necessarily foregone revenue to the city. His virtual doubling of this number, based on the limited number of projects, is not opinion – it is fantasy.

Michael Slattery is the Real Estate Board of New York’s senior vice president for research.