Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman is pledging to scrap Gov. Kathy Hochul’s controversial pied-à-terre tax if he wins office, denouncing the new levy as “oppressive” and “reckless” as New York City prepares to bring on dozens of workers to administer the fee.
Blakeman, the elected Nassau County executive, warned Thursday that Democratic tax policies in Albany could accelerate the exodus of residents and businesses from New York City, where the local tax burden already stands at 12.5% — the third-highest in the nation.
“This reckless tax will drive even more families, jobs, and investment out of our state, and middle-class New Yorkers will pay the price,” Blakeman said. “I will move to eliminate it on day one when I am elected governor.”
Blakeman also took direct aim at Hochul, accusing the Democratic governor of advancing the new tax through the state Legislature as a political boost for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on a democratic socialist agenda centered on higher taxes for the wealthy.
While Hochul declined to embrace broader increases to income or corporate taxes sought by Mamdani and his allies, she backed several measures intended to help the new mayor close his first budget gap — including the pied-à-terre tax, which applies to high-value second homes in New York City.
Blakeman further criticized Hochul after the city Department of Finance released a public list of non-primary residences valued above $1 million that appeared to be vacant, including the names and addresses of property owners.
“Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani’s new tax publicly targets homeowners, puts them at risk of crime, assumes they’re guilty, and forces them to prove they don’t owe the government more money,” Blakeman said.
His remarks follow a turbulent rollout of the new property tax, with lingering questions over how city officials identified which homeowners could be subject to the charge.
A number of longtime New Yorkers claimed they wrongly received notices of the new tax despite living full-time in the city. Mamdani’s rocky launch of the tax forces residents in that bind to have to prove they shouldn’t be slapped with the pied-a-terre tax.
Blakeman attacked the process as “oppressive and un-American.”
Mamdani also admitted Thursday in a separate press conference that the city needed to hire 24 new staffers across the DOF and the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings to “engage” with New Yorkers being hit with the levy of up to 6.5% on one-to-three family homes over $5 million and condos over $1 million.
“The focus of their hiring is to engage with New Yorkers who have questions about this process,” Mamdani told reporters at an event in The Bronx.
“And one of the reasons that we started this process at this point is to ensure that New Yorkers have the requisite amount of time to engage with city government before the levying of this tax,” he added.
City Hall wouldn’t say what those new employees would cost taxpayers.
However, the city’s job site show that the DOF has 25 open spots, the vast majority of which were posted last week.
While none of the job listings specifically mention the pied-a-terre tax, many would seem to have a role in collections, real estate law or tax exemptions.
Those civil service gigs pay between $67,000 and $110,000.
City Hall told the Post Wednesday that 17,000 notices had been sent out to wealthy owners — some of whom claimed they were sent the notice by mistake.
But Mamdani downplayed the dilemma — citing that owners have until the end of next month to file their appeals if they believe they have been wrongly subjected to a tax.
“I understand the concerns that some New Yorkers have that they are facing, and I know that a new tax typically brings more questions than it does answers,” Mamdani said.
“Right now, we are working around the clock across multiple city agencies to ensure that we are engaging with New Yorkers about how we are going to be delivering a tax on secondary homes worth more than $5 million.”
Condo and homeowners who believe they were wrongly hit with the tax notice have until Aug. 21st to file a rebuttal against the charge.
