cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/42743
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a historic new tax on owners of luxury second homes which are worth $5m or more, in a bid to raise $500m for the city.
The ‘pied-à-terre tax’ will apply to people who do not live full time in the city but reap the rewards of investing in the New York real estate market.
Mamdani called the new tax “specifically designed for the richest of the rich” and said it was aimed at tackling a “fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers”, in a video post on social media.
The new tax was formally proposed by NY state governor Kathy Hochul, who added on X: “New Yorkers show up for this city every day. Some of the wealthiest property owners and foreign oligarchs don’t. It’s time they start contributing like everyone else.”
According to the New York Times, Hochul has been resistant to taxing large corporations and the city’s wealthiest residents. However, she was more open to taxing luxury second-homeowners who do not pay state or city income taxes because their primary residences are outside New York.
The tax will contribute towards combatting New York City’s fiscal deficit, which is estimated to stand at $5.4bn through the next fiscal year.
Previous attempts to introduce a second-homes tax were quashed by powerful real estate developers, including as recently as 2019.
Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.
If they get the full $500m they want from this, the deficit will still stand at $4.9bn. The NYPD's budget stands at $6.7bn. It's good that they've finally "broken the ice" on this, but I submit that it is impossible to get NYC "in the black" without massive cuts to one of the most bloated, corrupt, destructive, and ineffective police departments in the country.
NYC's police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, appointed by Eric Adams about 15 months ago, is a billionaire. Virtually all mayors choose their own police commissioner and Mamdani carried over Tisch, so she may hold leverage/be difficult to get rid of before the NYPD budget can be significantly cut.
That's too on-the-nose, the readers will never buy it.
From a billionaire family with Epstein connections, no less.
Are you really a billionaire without a connection to Epstein?