Judge reverses pause on Mamdani's second home tax

Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdni's second home or "pied-à-terre tax" rollout will be back in effect after a judge ruled against a pause on Thursday. However, the legal battle over the new tax is not over yet.

The decision from an appellate court temporarily lifts a restraining order against the tax. The restraining order against the policy was issued by a lower court on Monday. The reversal allows Mamdani and City Hall to continue their botched rollout of the tax. The administration had effectively doxxed thousands of wealthy New Yorkers in a public database listing their names and addresses in the lead-up to the tax.

On Thursday, Associate Justice Phillip Hom of the Brooklyn Appellate Division signed the order to reverse the lower court's restraining order. Former first deputy mayor Randy Mastro, who is legally representing three homeowners in the case against the tax, said that the attempt to keep the tax was “an astonishing display of chutzpah.”

“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,” Mastro said, per the New York Post. "Instead, the administration is doubling down, going to court to ensure that it can continue harassing and threatening New York City homeowners who clearly are permanent residents — something the City would know if it would only do its homework.”

Mamdani has pushed the tax, which needed approval from the state, after he promised his socialist supporters that he would "tax the rich" once he got into office. After pressuring New York Governor Kathy Hochul to raise income taxes on wealthy New Yorkers—saying that if she didn't, he would raise property taxes on all those in the Big Apple—the head of state caved to the second home tax proposal with Mamdani.

The tax applies to one- to three-family homes that are worth over $5 million as well as condos that are worth over $1 million that are non-primary residences in New York. However, after publishing a database of over 900,000 New Yorkers who might get hit with the tax, confusion set in as many homes in the database were not within the scope of the stated purpose of the tax.

Mastro's filing accused the city of “negligence, laziness or intentionality” for ignoring the data they had to make the tax determinations. The city Department of Finance had also sent out 17,000 notices to those that they believed would fit the criteria for the tax. The whole mess prompted the lawsuit from the homeowners.

“The only reasonable explanation is 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,” Mastro said on Thursday in a court filing. “You can’t terrorize first and then clarify,” he added, “which is exactly what the city is trying to do.”