The city has slapped higher tax assessments on nearly 300 buildings in Manhattan that were improperly undervalued in a bribery scheme, officials said yesterday.

In the wake of the indictments of a slew of tax assessors earlier this year in a federal corruption probe, the Department of Finance has just sent out notices hiking the assessments on 296 commercial properties by a total of $433 million, beginning in July.

The values of each of the buildings were raised anywhere from 1 to 10 percent, said Department of Finance spokesman Sam Miller, adding that assessments on 100 other commercial properties didn’t change.

The newly increased assessments are expected to pump $18.7 million in additional tax revenue into city coffers, he said. Jeffrey Golkin, a tax attorney who represents innocent owners hurt by the scandal, said “it begins to demonstrate the magnitude of the loss against the taxpayers.”

“The money belongs to the taxpayers, so when the city acquires that additional tax, it should be set aside . . . for taxpayers who paid more than their fair share.”

Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for many of the building owners and for the Real Estate Board of New York, said some property owners may try to have the new assessments lowered.

“Each of the owners will look carefully at the assessment,” he said.

“If they think it’s not appropriate, they will contest it. Otherwise, if it is an appropriate tax, they will pay it.”

The city’s latest move comes after the assessments on more than 562 buildings came into question when 15 tax assessors were indicted on charges they accepted more than $10 million in payoffs to alter assessments in a scam that has been going on for decades.

Two former assessors turned consultants also were arrested.

The federal probe is continuing and more arrests are expected, sources said. None of the property owners has been implicated.

Department of Finance Commissioner Martha Stark fired some assessors and ordered the re-examination of the properties tied to the February indictments.

The remainder of the properties cited in the indictments were residential, but the legal time period to change those assessments ended in February.

HIGH-RISE HIKES

60 Hudson St. Owner: Comras Company

January: $102,000,000

Today: $112,200,000

622 Third Avenue., Owner: Charles S. Cohen

January: $196,000,000

Today: $215,000,000

420 Lexington Avenue. Owner: SL Green Realty Trust

January: $173,000,000

Today: $190,300,000

33 Whitehall Street Owner: Kipp-Stawski

January: $50,300,000

Today: $55,330,000

Tentative value of 296 properties: (Jan. 2002) $6,038,597,431

Current tentative value: $6,471,600,893

Source: City Department of Finance. January and current figures are tentative fair market value of the building.