And then there were three candidates to replace Sheldon Silver as State Assembly Speaker. Carl Heastie seems to be the frontrunner over Joe Morelle of Rochester and Catherine Nolan of Queens, but as one observer noted “Beware of front runner status.” Heastie has a reputation for not saying much about any issues publicly, but voted with Silver 98.89 percent of the time. He has said he would fight fiercely to extend rent regulations, but his district in the Wakefield section of the Bronx has a lot of homeowners and only half the number of rent stabilized or rent controlled apartments of Silver’s lower Manhattan district.
Besides rent regulations, extension of 421a tax incentives for housing will be a key issue for the new Speaker and other leaders in Albany this Spring. City Council members are questioning if the program should be extended at all, while the Mayor’s office is talking about unspecified tweaks to help meet his affordable housing goals.
The New York State Division of Homes and Community Renewal issued 2015 fuel adjustments for rent controlled apartments yesterday. Prices went down for all forms of oil, and gas except Con Ed interruptible gas service, so owners will have to file the reductions by April 1st or forfeit the entire cumulative amount for the year.
Nationally, housing starts topped one million in 2014 for the first time since 2007 and multifamily starts represented 358,000 of the total, another seven year high and 16 percent more than 2013.
Join us for an important Energy Market Forecast and discussion of What It Means For Your Energy Buying Strategy, with Thomas Devlin, Director, ABO-FS Energy Services , 4:15 p.m., Thursday, February 26, 2015 at the Club 101, 101 Park Avenue, New York, NY. Please RSVP to associatedbuilders@abogny.com