Bill de Blasio Won’t Say How His Housing Plan Will Go Forward if 421a Expires

Mayor Bill de Blasio today flatly refused to say if or how his administration would try to advance its ambitious plans to build affordable housing if the 421a tax credit for developers expires—even though just four days remain for the real estate industry and organized labor to reach a deal on prevailing wages to be written into the exemption, which insiders say is crucial to all new construction.

With time quickly slipping away for the Building and Construction Trades Council and the Real Estate Board of New York to reach an arrangement, Mr. de Blasio brushed off questions about the abatement possibly disappearing as “hypotheticals.” He refused to even entertain the notion that the bargaining could fail.