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HOTEL VALUES LOGICAL

Hotel Values Logical

To the Editor:

In response to your May 19 article, the change in hotel valuation methodologies was made because the Department of Finance is dedicated to having fair and accurate values for all of New York City's one million properties.

Before, hotels were valued by a nine-step process subject to any number of variables depending on the property. It was convoluted, confusing, and complex.

The new method accurately reflects actual market value of hotels relative to the entire industry. The new process is simple, clear, and predictable, and it allows us to be judged, which couldn't be done before. This administration is dedicated to world-class customer service, and that means doing away with a system that allowed corruption, masked by a series of archaic valuation methodologies, to injure the public's trust in government. The fact is that at an increase of 8.3 percent, hotel values outpaced gain in market value by the rest of the city's commercial properties.

Ninety percent of hotels, including ones in Midtown Manhattan, saw their values rise or stay flat, with some increases just as dramatic as the decreases cited in your article.

We can only hope that in the future when we are judged, we are judged using a thorough, objective analysis conducted by independent sources.

SAM MILLER, Assistant Commissioner for Communications and Customer Service, Department of Finance