The mayor is on record acknowledging that New York City’s property-tax system is unfair and needs reform. Yet despite that fact, and despite repeated promises to address the issue, the city’s actions regarding a lawsuit brought by Tax Equity Now New York to recognize and address inequities in the property-tax system reflect a persistent attempt to delay or thwart legal remedies at all costs.

This resistance is hard to understand. Rather than fighting against a cause he appears to believe in, the mayor should join this effort to fix a deeply unfair system.

So far, the city has challenged Tax Equity Now New York’s standing to even bring our lawsuit in the first place, even though there is no serious dispute that any of our members can do so — just as a coalition of parents filed suit against the state’s public education funding commitments years ago, and won.

Then the city’s legal team refused to consent to letting social-justice organizations and good-government groups, such as the state’s branch of the NAACP, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the Citizens Budget Commission, participate as amici curiae, lending their legal arguments to the case.

Something is afoot on one of the city's diciest policy issues: property taxes.

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised Tuesday his office would soon move to reform property taxes—two days before his finance commissioner will appear at an event with a group suing to change them.

The mayor made the remarks at an unrelated afternoon press conference in Brooklyn, more than a year after he said he would assemble "a task force or whatever" to examine the city's patchwork, piecemeal property tax system.

The group Tax Equity Now—an odd-couple coalition of civil rights groups and real estate powerhouses—have sued, alleging that owners of some dwellings get favorable treatment at the expense of minorities.

Which is why it is strange that Jacques Jiha, the man de Blasio has tasked with heading the city Department of Finance and administering the current tax system, is scheduled to appear at a Manhattan Chamber of Commerce event titled "Reforming the Property Tax in NYC" Thursday morning with his predecessor Martha Stark, Tax Equity Now's director of policy. Also on the program are Citizens Budget Commission President Carol Kellermann and Real Estate Board of New York President John Banks—both endorsers of the Tax Equity Now Suit—as well as de Blasio's former commissioner of the Department of Housing and Preservation, Vicki Been.

Mr. de Blasio was decidedly pro union during his first term. He spoke in favor of striking Verizon workers, and called Joe Ricketts, the billionaire owner of news websites DNAinfo and Gothamist, a “coward” when he closed both sites following a vote by workers to unionize.

The de Blasio administration has also adopted other pro-labor policies, like going after illegal Airbnb rentals, an action supported by the Hotel Trades Council, and supporting the campaign for a $15 minimum wage. The city recently filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, et al., which is challenging the right of unions to collect dues from all employees who benefit from collective bargaining.

“The de Blasio administration narrative has been one of productive collaborations with the unions,” said Maria Doulis, vice president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, citing what they said could be devastating financial fallout to a dozen Democratic-led states, announced Friday that they will file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal tax plan adopted last month.

"There is a very strong argument that the bill is a fundamental violation of states' rights” Cuomo said in a public conference Friday morning with Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Gov. Dannel Molloy of Connecticut, both Democrats. “There's a very strong argument that it's a violation of the equal protection clause.” Cuomo added.

The governors said the filing of the lawsuit is still weeks away and they are trying to gain support from other states to join the litigation. The additional plaintiffs would not make the lawsuit "legally stronger, it makes it politically stronger," Cuomo said.

Those in the top 1 percent income bracket in New York pay 40 percent of the state’s income taxes, noted David Friedfel, director of State Studies at the Citizens Budget Commission fiscal watchdog group. If enough of that 1 percent decides to leave New York because they have lost a tax deduction, the state would have to make up the difference somewhere else or enact budget cuts.

Its sorry state makes a mockery of New York City's reputation as a world capital. Its eroding infrastructure and gross mismanagement have sparked months of damaging headlines. Its value to New York City is as incalculable as the cost of its repair.

And it is not Gov. Andrew Cuomo's MTA. Or not just the MTA, at any rate.

"That's the way government works," said Carol Kellermann, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. "People push problems off as long as they can. But [de Blasio] is on duty when the accumulated results of the disinvestment have started to be much more manifest, just the way the governor is experiencing the cumulative effect of the investment in, or lack of investment in, infrastructure."

The tax bill provision capping federal deductions for state and local taxes at $10,000 could pose a long-term threat to the Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, according to credit analysts.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy announced on Friday plans to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the so-called SALT provision.

Robert Mujucia, Cuomo’s budget director, said during a Jan. 24 forum hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission that 3.3 million New Yorkers utilize the SALT deduction, representing about one-third of state tax filers. He said the average SALT deduction is $22,000.

Three key points of contention between the city and the state have emerged over transit funding, highlighted during Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Chair Joe Lhota’s testimony at the joint legislative hearing on transportation Thursday in Albany.

The hearing, which included discussion of the MTA plan to restore New York City’s ailing subway system, occurred amid an ongoing feud between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo over the funding of crucial repairs for the deteriorating transit system, which is controlled by the state.

Cuomo's executive budget allocates $9.7 billion for the departments of transportation and motor vehicles, the Thruway Authority, and the MTA. However, the budget shifts all of the responsibility for capital costs to the City of New York, which would “require a sevenfold increase in City capital contributions,” according to Citizens Budget Commission President Carol Kellermann.

Cuomo Budget Director Robert Mujica outlined the aggressive timetable at a conference Wednesday organized by me in my role at the CUNY Journalism School and by Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission. Mujica echoed the governor’s line that the new federal law is a missile aimed at wealthy states like New York and California because of its limits on deductions of state and local taxes, among other provisions. No disagreement there. What to do about it is another matter.

In fiscal year 2017, the system treated more than 1.1 million patients according to the Mayor’s Management Report, of which nearly 415,000 were uninsured. But the system faces a projected budget gap of $1.8 billion by 2020. In the current fiscal year ending June 30, the de Blasio administration expects to spend $897 million on the system, of which $784 million will come from the city’s coffers and the rest from state and federal funds. Those costs are only expected to grow over the next few yearsn. Johnson, Levine, Rivera, and other Council members, including new finance chair Danny Dromm, will now lead budget negotiations with the administration.

While the de Blasio administration has put in place a plan to reinvigorate the municipal hospital system, any progress that has been made is threatened by federal funding cuts. The city, and state, have long braced for reductions in Disproportionate Share Hospital payments from the federal government, which help reimburse hospitals for providing healthcare to low-income and uninsured patients. The DSH cuts went into effect in October last year, further exacerbating a trend of decreasing investment from the federal government that city officials have repeatedly cited.

First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, at a forum hosted by Citizens Budget Commission on Wednesday, said those cuts amounted to about $300 million in lost funding, placing “an additional and unnecessary strain on our hospitals.” And he warned of the larger implications of the federal budget. “[E]very major proposal that’s come out of either the [House of Representative] or the president has had dramatically huge cuts to New York City,” he said. “We’re going to have to balance all of this and be very careful how we proceed.”

After hearing of the city’s conference call, Lhota said that he needed to provide a retort to the mayor’s team.

“When the mayor’s people were having their telephone call, I was meeting with Speaker Corey Johnson regarding the subway action plan,” said Lhota. “As I was leaving City Hall, I was briefed on it and felt like we needed to respond.”

But one nonpartisan organization has the mayor’s back. Carol Kellerman, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said that putting the onus on the city to fund capital improvement to the subway is unjustified.

“The Executive Budget asserts the responsibility for funding New York City subway and bus capital improvements should rest solely with the City of New York, which would require a sevenfold increase in city capital contributions,” Kellerman said in a statement after the budget was revealed. “In addition, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would be authorized to establish Transportation Improvement Districts within New York City that capture revenues from rising property values—without the city’s approval.

A gathering of tax experts in Manhattan on Wednesday opened with a bold proclamation from state Budget Director Robert Mujica: Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration will have a full rewrite of the state tax code by Valentine’s Day, with hopes to enact it by April 1 along with the state’s $168.2 billion budget.

But after Mujica departed, attendees had another cup of coffee and panels of experts convened by the Citizens Budget Commission and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism offered a rejoinder: Don’t rush this.

“Just because the federal government pushed through these tax changes in a month doesn’t mean that New York City and New York state should,” said Howard Cure, director of municipal bond credit research for Evercore Wealth Management. “I think a majority of people in this region are going to benefit, so why rush it? … The governor is really making a national presence on this. I can’t help but think some element of that is, he’s looking at 2020.”

New York City relies on federal funding for everything from hospital disaster preparedness and school aid, to Medicaid, Social Security and homeland security; the city received approximately $8 billion in federal funding grants in the last fiscal year. And New York budget watchdogs worry that the city’s finances are in an increasingly precarious position under the Trump administration — and wonder why de Blasio continues to spend freely when the nation is due for a recession and facing repercussions from the new tax reform law, which hits New York’s high earners with new limits on the tax deduction for state and local taxes.

“We are very dependent,” said Carol Kellermann, president of the non-partisan Citizens Budget Commission. “[We] have been saying for a while, you’ve got to get prepared and put away more reserves, and spend less. ... You don’t adjust for a rainy day on the rainy day.”