Mamdani’s ‘Astonishing Display of Chutzpah’

“An astonishing display of chutzpah” is what lawyers for New York City homeowners are calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s attempt to proceed with the rollout of his so-called pied-à-terre tax in defiance of a court order. Amid rising doubts about the validity of the tax and criticism of its introduction, a state judge, Wayne Ozzi, ordered the city to pause its activity. Yet an appellate court today backed Mr. Mamdani’s lawyers’ refusal to stop the rollout.“It is a shame that the City can’t own up to its own mistakes and admit that it has badly botched the rollout of this surcharge,” a lawyer for the homeowners, Randy Mastro, tells us. He asserts that when the case is back before Judge Ozzi “in a mere 18 days,” the “thousands of New York City homeowners who are now illegally burdened with the responsibility of proving they do indeed live in their own homes will finally get the permanent relief they deserve.”Mr. Mastro had decried Mr. Mamdani’s taxation department, too, for failing to follow sound procedures, like reviewing income tax data, to determine who owes the surcharge. That omission, the homeowners’ lawyers say, could be due to “negligence, laziness, or intentionality.” It suggests, they add, that “the City is trying to ensnare thousands more New York City residents who are not liable for this Surcharge into having to pay it anyway.”The property owners’ allegations emerged in filings in appellate proceedings at a court at Brooklyn, where the city today won a round. Yet the suit against the pied-à-terre tax, filed only last Friday, has become a fast-moving legal threat to one of Mr. Mamdani’s — and Governor Kathy Hochul’s — signature policy moves as the two seek to plug a multi-billion dollar deficit in New York City’s swollen budget while fulfilling Hizzoner’s campaign vow to “tax the rich.” It’s far from clear, though, that only the wealthiest New Yorkers would end up being subjected to the tax on second homes. As attorney Stuart Saft found in a recent analysis of the law, the surcharge is “a tax on every owner of a home in New York City that is worth a certain amount,” provided that “the city determines that the owner did not use the home as their primary residence and does not file New York City and New York state tax returns.”Making such determinations will take time, yet Mr. Mamdani’s haste to collect the tax has already led to an uproar as hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were placed on a list suggesting they could be potentially subject to the levy. Hence the importance of the pause imposed by Judge Ozzi. Mr. Saft notes, too, that the levy is also shaping up as “a tax on retirees living out of New York most of the year who never sold their New York City home.”Such retirees, Mr. Saft cautions, could have bought their home “decades ago,” only to find it “has appreciated in value.” These retirees might “use it part of the year and wanted to leave the family home to their children,” he adds. Yet the levy is “based on the value of a piece of real estate and not the wealth of the owner,” per Mr. Saft. “As such, in some instances, it is the most regressive tax that could be charged,” he concludes.In that context, Mr. Saft warns, the surcharge “is not ‘Tax the Rich,’” but “a tax on someone who owns a valuable asset and could be living on a fixed income and will now be forced to sell that asset to pay the tax.” More’s the reason, then, for the city to honor Judge Ozzi’s order to pause the rollout until tax officials get their facts right. Today’s ruling backing the city’s rush to rake in revenue has the earmarks of a threat to New Yorkers’ due process rights.

Mamdani’s ‘Astonishing Display of Chutzpah’

Mamdani’s ‘Astonishing Display of Chutzpah’

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