Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre (D-Babylon) announced Assembly passage of two pieces of legislation she authored to provide tax relief to victims of Superstorm Sandy. Both bills are sponsored by Senator Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) in the Senate.

“After the damage and devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy, Long Islanders have been doing their best to recover and put the pieces back together again,” Jean-Pierre said. “The storm put us through a lot, and these bills ensure that people who had to make tough decisions and put their future on hold to fix their homes aren’t penalized for it.”

“It is important that we ensure that victims impacted by Superstorm Sandy are not victimized twice”, said Senator Boyle. “After all that they have been through, it is imperative that we provide as much relief to these property owners as possible. The legislation that Assemblywoman Jean Pierre and I sponsored will provide that relief. I am pleased that the Assembly passed both pieces of legislation in support of Sandy victims. Although my Senate colleagues passed one bill yesterday, I urge them to pass S.6685-A, to provide the utmost support to these already overburdened taxpayers.”

The process of filing insurance claims and receiving state and federal aid to rebuild was lengthy and drawn out, forcing many people to take funds from their retirement savings to make emergency home repairs. Jean-Pierre introduced and helped pass legislation to allow taxpayers whose primary residence was severely damaged during the storm and located in a presidentially declared disaster zone to subtract the distributions taken from their retirement plans from their federal adjusted gross income (A.6660-A).

To further help Sandy victims recover, Jean-Pierre introduced and helped pass a measure that extends the deadline for Sandy tax exemption applications from March 2018 to March 2020 (A.8724). The legislation builds on a law she championed in 2015 that provided property tax relief for Long Island homeowners who faced higher taxes after repairing or rebuilding their homes in the wake of the storm by allowing a gradual tax increase over an eight-year period (Ch. 122 of 2015).