The New York City Department of Finance improperly denied a property tax exemption to the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug reform group, for its newly acquired headquarters in a condominium at 131 W. 33rd St., said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten (See Profile).
The Department of Finance had determined that the group’s “advocacy of a cause” did not qualify it for a $40,000-a-year property exemption under state Real Property Tax Law §420-a(1)(a). The statute’s exemption applies to not-for-profit group property that is held for “religious, charitable, hospital, educational, or moral or mental improvement of men, women or children purposes.”
