A conservative group is running a digital ad taking on Rep. Hakeem Jeffries — a front-runner to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for paying just $213 a year in property taxes on his $1.2 million condo thanks to a legal loophole he backed in the state Assembly.
The American Action Network accuses Jeffries of “blatant hypocrisy” for exploiting a law that cuts his own taxes to close to zero while advocating tax hikes on others.
The condo Jeffries bought in 2007 in the six-story, 40-unit complex on Underhill Avenue in red-hot Prospect Heights benefits from a massive property tax break granted under the 421-A abatement program that housing advocates have long complained is skewed toward wealthy developers and well-to-do tenants.
The Post first reported on the extraordinary Jeffries property tax subsidy last month.
In response to the piece, Jeffries tried to defend the deal that has allowed him to pay virtually no property taxes for years while drawing a congressional salary of $174,000, with a tie-in to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and his family have been specifically targeted with threats of violence on January 6th and thereafter. The effort to single out his home with phony outrage over a tax abatement his and 30,000 properties in Brooklyn have qualified for since their construction is reckless, irresponsible and may ultimately put his family at risk. Shame on you,” Jeffries spokesman Andy Eichar told The Post at the time.
“The well-connected and powerful elites like Congressman Hakeem Jeffries get to live by a different set of rules than the working class people in this country,” said American Action Network spokesman Calvin Moore.
“Jeffries is all-too-happy to raise your taxes, just so long as he takes care of himself with a sweetheart deal that lets him pay 28 times less than the average New Yorker.”
In the 30-second spot running on social media including Facebook, YouTube and Google, the narrator says Jeffries gets a “sweetheart deal” saving him “nearly 12 grand while pushing higher taxes on us.”
It then shows Jeffries in a clip saying, “We have to make sure the wealthy and well-connected pay their fair share.”
The narrator in the ad then says, “Tell Jeffries to start with yourself and stop raising our taxes.”
Jeffries, the House Democratic Caucus chairman and a close ally of Pelosi, is rumored to be the top contender for speaker when she retires.
In response to the ad, a spokesman for Jeffries referred to comments he made in a Medium post about his property tax break.
“The 421-A program has been a matter of law for more than 50 years. Upon its enactment in 1971, the program was designed to encourage investment in traditionally underdeveloped neighborhoods, particularly in Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn.
More than 15 years ago, we purchased an apartment on the border of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights in Brooklyn. At the time, there were more auto-body shops on the block than there were homeowners,” Jeffries said in the piece, which also boasted of actions he’s taken in Congress and the state Legislature.
