NY property tax system seen as inequitable

[NEW YORK] Mayor Bill de Blasio's vision of raising income taxes to pay for pre-kindergarten and after- school programmes would generate US$530 million a year. By revamping property taxes - and taking on some of New York's richest residents - he could get eight times as much.

Mr De Blasio, a self-described progressive Democrat, was elected on a promise to reduce income inequality in a city where the richest one per cent took home almost 40 per cent of all earnings in 2012.

New York's property tax structure does little to reduce that divide and may even widen it.

The real estate levy, the city's biggest revenue source, uses a methodology that undervalues condominiums on Park Avenue, Central Park West and other enclaves of the wealthy; limits tax increases for owner…