NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8846
SPONSOR: Zinerman TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the real property tax law and the administrative code of
the city of New York, in relation to prohibiting the sale of tax liens
by a tax district in a city with a population of one million or more
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Prohibits tax districts from selling their tax liens to private collec-
tors, requiring municipalities to collect their own debts.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends section 1190 of the Real Property Tax law to remove
authority to sell real property tax obligations to private collectors
and adds an explicit prohibition of that practice.
Section 2 sets an effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Taxing jurisdictions currently can sell their tax liens to private debt
collectors who then proceed to collect whatever amount of that lien that
they can get. This practice can lead to abusive harassment of property
owners who have in a difficult situation already, which is often why
they are in arrears on their taxes. These debt collectors make their
profits off the misery of others, and a taxing authority's inability to
collect on its receivables. Neither of these situations are in the
interest of well functioning government and should not be continued.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of January following its being
made law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8846
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 9, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ZINERMAN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Real Property Taxation
AN ACT to amend the real property tax law and the administrative code of
the city of New York, in relation to prohibiting the sale of tax liens
by a tax district in a city with a population of one million or more
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 1 of section 1190 of the real
2 property tax law, as amended by chapter 149 of the laws of 2003, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a tax
5 district may enter into a contract to sell some or all of the delinquent
6 tax liens held by it to the state of New York municipal bond bank agency
7 created pursuant to section twenty-four hundred thirty-three of the
8 public authorities law, hereinafter referred to as the "bond bank", or
9 to one or more tax lien entities created by the bond bank pursuant to
10 section twenty-four hundred thirty-five-b of the public authorities law.
11 A tax district may enter into such a contract whether or not it is
12 otherwise subject to the provisions of this article[; provided, however,
13 that any county, city or town that is not subject to the provisions of
14 this article pursuant to subdivision two of section eleven hundred four
15 of this article may continue to enforce the collection of delinquent
16 taxes, including through the sale of tax liens, pursuant to a county
17 charter, city charter, administrative code or special law]. Notwith-
18 standing any provision of law to the contrary, no tax district in a city
19 with a population of one million or more shall sell some or all of the
20 tax liens held by it.
21 § 2. Subdivision b of section 11-319 of the administrative code of the
22 city of New York is amended by adding a new paragraph 15 to read as
23 follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11523-01-5
A. 8846 2
1 15. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, on and after
2 the effective date of this subdivision, no tax lien shall be sold pursu-
3 ant to this chapter.
4 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
5 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
