According to reports, there are eighty-five bills on Governor Kathy Hochul's desk, waiting to be signed or vetoed. The governor has until Sunday to do so. Among them is the LLC Transparency Act, which would create a public database listing the names of those who benefit from an LLC (limited liability corporation).
The Transparency Act is of particular interest at the moment because the building in the Bronx that suffered a partial collapse last week was owned by an LLC. CBS New York published this report a few days ago: "Bill awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature would make it easier to find out who owns a building in New York State." According to information available at Reinvent Albany, 37 percent of the buildings in Manhattan are owned by LLCs. (I could find no similar information for all of New York City.)
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| Photo: Gothamist |
Curious to know the impact of the proposed legislation on our little city, I did a quick survey of the assessment rolls and found that, of 2,045 taxable properties in Hudson, 245 of them--about 21 percent--are owned by LLCs. Would the law help our location code enforcement office do its work? I put the question to our code enforcement officer, Craig Haigh.
According to Haigh, when the code enforcement office receives notification of a transfer of ownership, and the new owner is an LLC, they do an investigation to identify an actual person associated with the LLC. Sometimes the notification incudes the name of a person associated with the LLC, but often there is only a phone number or nothing beyond the name of the LLC and an address. If there is a phone number, code enforcement will call the number to learn the name of a person. If there is no phone number, code enforcement will send a letter to the address given or seek more information from the attorney representing the LLC when the sale closed. Haigh acknowledged that, although he feels his office has the information it needs for about 90 percent of the buildings in Hudson owned by LLCs, the public database that would be created by the LLC Transparency Act would be helpful.
Also on Hochul's desk awaiting her signature or veto is the even-year elections bill, which would consolidate town- and county-level elections to even-number years, so they happen in the same year as presidential and congressional elections. Supporters of the bill argue it will boost voter turnout in local elections. In July, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors voted 13 to 10 in favor of a resolution calling for a veto of the legislation. The reasons for opposing the legislation stated in the resolution are explained is this article from the Register-Star: "Supervisors call for veto of even-year law." The law would not affect the scheduling of elections in cities.
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Updates: Governor Kathy Hochul signed the LLC Transparency Act but negotiated a legislative amendment that, as Gothamist explains, will make the database that identifies the names of owners of LLCs available only for law-enforcement purposes.
Hochul also signed the bill that will move county- and town-level elections to even-number years.
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