Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman took aim at Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday after she sought to put distance between herself and the newly approved pied-a-terre tax, arguing that she is no longer the true power broker in New York’s Democratic Party.
Blakeman, speaking while visiting local businesses in Flushing, Queens, criticized his Democratic opponent a day after a judge temporarily blocked the luxury second-home tax — a measure pushed by Zohran Mamdani and ultimately signed into law by Hochul.
“She’s doing everything that Zohran Mamdani wants her to do, ‘cause he’s running the party now,” Blakeman told The Post.
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, blasted the implementation of the levy as “horrible.” The tax targets non-primary residences valued at more than $5 million, as well as condos worth more than $1 million.
“We want to encourage people to invest in second homes in New York State — what are you, crazy?” Blakeman said, vowing to reverse the policy if he wins the governor’s race.
His remarks followed Monday’s decision by a Staten Island judge to issue a temporary restraining order, pausing the disputed tax until the end of the month.
The same day, Hochul voiced irritation over how the tax had been rolled out and tried to separate her administration from the court fight.
“We’re not responsible for the rollout,” Hochul told reporters during an unrelated event in The Bronx on Monday.
“This is something that we talked to the city about in advance,” the governor said. “It’s up to their city tax department.
But Blakeman said that this was just a “typical Kathy Hochul” case of blaming everyone else for her own mistakes.
“It’s typical Kathy Hochl to blame everybody else for her failures,” Blakeman said. “This is the most overtaxed state.”
Beside the pledge to change the pied-a-terre duty, Blakeman also told reporters that he was looking to defy New York State’s recent Sanctuary State law that requires local governments to cancel partnerships with immigration officials.
Nassau has an active agreement to cooperate with ICE and the Republican has sought to challenge the state’s recent package of sanctuary laws.
“I’m talking to the lawyers,” Blakeman said, before adding that he’d follow the law if upheld legally, “even if I don’t agree with the law.”
“I swore to uphold the law, and I would always obey the law, but I’m not sure that it’s legal, what Kathy Hochul did,” he said.
