Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced an agreement on new legislation authorizing lien sales for the collection of overdue taxes and water bills.
A one-time Payment Incentive Program (PIP), which will eliminate late payment charges when a bill is settled and can reduce an outstanding balance by more than a quarter, was also introduced with this legislation.
These liens, combined with PIP, will force more people to pay their bills and forestall a previously proposed 18 percent mid-year water rate increase.
“Now we can effectively enforce collections and stop passing the burden caused by a small percentage of irresponsible ratepayers onto the more than 85 percent of New Yorkers who pay on time and maintain their accounts,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
The agreement also features a complete redesign of the dispute resolution process so that problems can be resolved more quickly. Many disputes can now be settled by the call center (311), and account holders have the right to a dispute hearing before the newly formed Ombudsman Unit.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.