In July, in New York City, there is no change in the hours of beaches, metro habits or the number of people in line in front of the food trucks. There are also some rules concerning different aspects of the city: luxury apartments used as a second home, Uber and Lyft drivers, private security guards, street vendors and hundreds of thousands of people enrolled in a public health plan. Messe together tell a good thing: New York is trying to make money where he sees unused wealth, better adjust some precarious jobs and, at the same time, he has to manage federal cuts that fall on people with low or medium incomes.
From 1 July the new tax on pied-à-terre starts, i.e. on expensive houses that are not used as the main residence. It is a measure discussed for years and now included in the state budget: it concerns only high-value properties in the five boroughs, often bought as an investment or kept empty for most of the year. The logic is that if an apartment from many million dollars benefits from the city services but it is not the main house of those who own it, the owner must contribute more. In the first phase, the system will be different for single-family houses or up to three families, on the one hand, and condominiums and cooperatives on the other, because New York uses very complicated real estate evaluation methods and not always close to real market prices.
The tax does not concern those who live in their home, nor those who rent the property with a contract along to a person who uses it as a main residence. Exclusions are also provided when the house is occupied by close family of the owner. It is an important point, because the measure is often demonized as a generic charge on second homes, but the real target is the uninhabited luxury properties. It remains to be seen how easy it will be to apply: the Department of Finance will have to establish which real estates are “non-primary residences”, send alerts to the owners and manage any disputes.
Also from 1 July the situation of about 450 thousand New Yorkers enrolled in the Essential Plan, the low-cost health program for people who have no access to Medicaid or an employer’s insurance. Due to the cuts and changes in federal funding, members with family income will no longer be eligible between 200 and 250 percent of the federal poverty threshold. It does not mean that all these people remain automatically without any option, but it means they will have to look for a new coverage on the state marketplace, often more expensive. For many people, in short, this will be the real news of July to deal with – literally.
For food merchants, however, July marks the beginning of an expected enlargement for years. The Department of Health will start offering 2,200 new supervisory licenses a year for five years, up to 11,000 new chances of getting a permit to work with a cart or a food truck. The first licenses will go to the people already present in the waiting lists created in 2022. It is a reform that concerns halal carts, hot dogs, pretzels, tacos, coffee, cut fruit. For years many sellers have worked in a gray area, with too few licenses compared to demand and a parallel market of licenses rented or sold informally. The new law does not solve the problem alone, but at least try to broaden the legal path.
On 28 July, the law on “wrongful deactivations” came into force for drivers of high volume ridesharing platforms, i.e. services such as Uber and Lyft. The rule prevents platforms from deactivating a driver after the initial period of testing without a proper cause, a documented economic reason or a legal obligation. In many cases companies will have to give notice and explain the reasons for deactivation; drivers may challenge it through an informal procedure, contact the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection or initiate private action. Uber and Lyft have already sued the city to block the law, claiming that it could limit their ability to quickly remove drivers considered dangerous or involved in fraud.
On the same day the law on the pay standards of private security guards comes into force, but here we must distinguish the entry into force of the norm from the calendar of economic obligations. The law stipulates that employers will have to guarantee wages, paid leave and supplementary benefits at least equal to those provided for the guards employed in public contracts of the city above a certain threshold. The wage part will begin from 2027, while other benefits will come later.
These rules do not all have the same weight and will not all have the same immediate effect. The tax on pied-à-terre concerns few very rich owners, but also serves to send a political message about the cost of empty properties in a city with very high rents and a chronic shortage of apartments. The reform of street vendors tries to regularize an economy that New York uses every day but has often left on the margins. The protections for drivers and security guards move a little power to workers who usually have little. The cut at the Essential Plan, on the other hand, goes in the opposite direction: it narrows a health cover that for many families was one of the few simple things in a complicated system. July, more than bringing a single great law, puts together these contradictions.
L’articolo From July 1st they will change a lot in New York proviene da IlNewyorkese.
