New York State Assembly Passes Rent Regulation Bill

The New York State Assembly passed a bill Monday that would extend rent regulation laws set to expire on June 15th, reports Curbed NY. The laws restrict what landlords can charge tenants in New York City and its suburbs.

From the New York Times:

The bill in the Democratic-controlled Assembly would extend rent regulations until 2016. It would do away with vacancy decontrol, which lets landlords deregulate apartments when they become vacant and their rent exceeds $2,000. It would alter luxury decontrol, which lets owners deregulate apartments when the tenants' income exceeds $175,000 and the rent is at least $2,000. Those limits would rise to $300,000 and $3,000. The bill would also limit rent increases for new tenants to 10 percent, down from 20 percent.

The bill, however, is but the beginning of a tug-of-war between the Assembly and the Republican-held State Senate who is unlikely to pass the bill in its current form.

Governor Cuomo, who came out in support of extending some rent regulations in March, is looking to find a bill that would pass both the Assembly and the Senate by making some concessions to the powerful real estate lobby, which has given millions in campaign contributions to State Senate Republicans and Governor Cuomo, according to the Wall Street Journal. These measures would include "an extension of tax breaks for new developments and relief for landlords from a 2009 court decision that said they could not deregulate apartments while also taking advantage of a certain tax incentive", reports the Times.

Rent regulations, a notoriously divisive issue in New York, were noticeably absent from the budget deal Governor Cuomo struck with legislators in Albany a couple weeks ago.