Attorney General to Sue Vantage Properties
NEW YORK—State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to Vantage Properties telling them to stop harassing tenants in various apartments throughout the city.
According to the attorney general’s letter, which was issued on Thursday, Vantage pressures people who live in rent-regulated apartments to move out so they can raise the rent on new tenants.
“Their underhanded tactics displace long-time residents from their homes and exacerbate the acute affordable housing shortage,” said Cuomo, who then added that Vantage issues “baseless legal notices” and has “frivolous Housing Court eviction proceedings.”
The majority of Vantage’s properties, which includes 9,500 apartments in 125 buildings, are located in Harlem, Upper Manhattan, and some parts of Queens.
Cuomo said that when Vantage purchases some buildings, they attempt to take some of the pre-existing tenants to court and then evict them.
Officials Push for Indian Cigarette Tax Collection
NEW YORK—State officials put pressure on Governor David Paterson to begin collecting a tax on cigarettes sold by Native Americans to people outside of reservations on Thursday.
“As the budget becomes more dire, we recognize the fact that we’ve lost billions of dollars,” said State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-NYC, Brooklyn), one of the main proponents of collecting the tax.
Previously, Kruger and others pushed the governor to rescind the so-called “letter of forbearance” that’s allowed Native American cigarette retailers to sell untaxed tobacco products. They say the policy has cost New York close to $1.6 billion a year.
