WTC Records Folder 0139 label, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

DEPT OF FINANCE/EXEC OFC 1 212 669 2275 P.01/02 OCT-25-2001 17:36

A Part►ursAiy Iadu4in8 Boston ' Chica o y ipr*ssianm Corporations London 50 Rockefeller Plaza Los Angeles New York, NY 10020.1605 Mismi 212-s4m EP T. OF Ft NA NC Moscow Fesiavle 2 ew York L / a 1l~E OFF IC OrangiCo,m}y, www.mwe.com silicon Valley 1Q01 OCT 25 P 3 Peter G Faber a.~hingtan, D.C. Attorney at Law ptaber®mwe.com MCDERMOTT, WILL & EMERY 212-547.5585

October 20, 2001

The Honorable Andrew S. Eristoff Ccr.imiss_ioner of Fiience The City of New York Municipal Building, Room 500 New York, NY 10007

Re: World Trade Center Recovery/Tax Policies

Dear Commissioner Eristoff:

It has come to the attention of the New York City Partnership and Chamber of Commerce that the Department is considering adopting several positions relative to efforts by would City businesses and individuals to recover from the recent tragic events that in our view seriously undermine recovery efforts.

Department representatives have indicated that the City will continue to collect ad valorum real property taxes at their pre-September values on buildings that have been rendered uninhabitable by the September 11 attacks. They have also indicated that businesses that have been displaced from the World Trade Center area and that are temporarily renting space in hotel rooms for use as offices will have to pay the hotel occupancy tax rather than the lower commercial rent or occupancy tax with respect to the use of these rooms.

While perhaps technically defensible, neither of these positions is compelled by the statutory language. More importantly, the message they would send is that the City is prepared to extract unreasonable tax revenues from businesses that have been badly damaged by the terrorist attacks and that are struggling to recover. This is not the message that the City should be conveying at a time when it is desperately trying to retain displaced businesses and individuals.

We understand the fiscal pressures to which the City is subject at these difficult times, and we applaud the efforts that you and your staff are making to stabilize the City's finances. It is hard to strike a balance between preserving revenues and retaining displaced businesses and individuals. These decisions are not easy ones. Nevertheless, we feel strongly that if the positions described above were adopted the City would be viewed as attempting to

NYIC 735494-I O09900002l

NYC-WTC 000136604