Taskforce Takes on Tax Breaks for Developers

New York, NY —

As a city taskforce meets today to begin overhauling a decades-old program that gives tax breaks to developers housing advocates have been highlighting examples of builders who shouldn't need any publicly funded incentives.

REPORTER: Yesterday, housing advocates called attention to 10 buildings -- mostly in upscale neighborhoods such as Brooklyn Heights and Soho -- where developers are expected to receive about $6.5 million worth of tax savings annually.

Margaret Chin from Asian Americans for equality stood near a construction site in Tribeca. She said no affordable housing would be built in exchange for the tax breaks:

CHIN: Our tax dollars should not be used to subsidize luxury housing. Your talking about someone paying 12-thousand dollars a month, they need subsidy, cmon.

REPORTER: The 421A program was created to spark building during the city's fiscal crisis of the 1970's. The city's housing department says once the program is revamped, it could generate 200 million dollars in tax revenues to be used for affordable housing over the next decade. for wnyc; I'm cindy rodriguez