Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday brushed aside complaints from New York City homeowners who say they have been mistakenly swept up in the state’s new pied-à-terre tax — a levy he spent months describing as aimed only at affluent nonresidents with luxury second homes.
Confusion has mounted over how officials decided which properties might fall under the newly approved surcharge. But neither Mamdani nor Department of Finance Commissioner Richard Lee offered a clear explanation when pressed for details.
The mayor has long maintained that the tax would target wealthy owners of non-primary residences in New York City. Yet some year-round residents say they were stunned to receive Department of Finance notices warning that they “may” owe a bill potentially reaching five figures.
During a press conference on an unrelated topic, reporters questioned Mamdani and Lee about whether the Department of Finance should have more carefully screened the mailing list before sending notices that may have incorrectly alarmed longtime city residents.
“What I would say is the Department of Finance identified homes that may be subject to the surcharge, as we know this is a surcharge on non-primary residences that are worth more than $5 million,” Mamdani said, largely restating the basic scope of the new tax.
“As required by the law, the Department of Finance sent informational resources to homeowners to ensure that they understood the tax, that they understood the options before them, and also if they did not believe it to apply to them, that they had the time in order to be able to appeal,” he added.
For residents who say they were wrongly flagged, however, the next step is an appeal process some have characterized as a frustrating bureaucratic burden — one that requires them to prove the city’s tax agency made a mistake before the Aug. 21 deadline.
Mamdani did not answer a follow-up question asking why New Yorkers should be responsible for correcting the issue themselves.
He instead choose to only address another part of that reporter’s question, about a searchable database the DOF posted of hundreds of thousands of properties, including the addresses and owners’ names, that could be subject to the tax.
Posting the “supplemental tax roll” was required under state law, Mamdani claimed.
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Lee didn’t fare much better in offering an explanation as to how massive tax bills landed in the mailboxes of some everyday New Yorkers.
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The tax is meant to apply to one-to-3 family homes worth at least $5 million and co-ops and condominiums valued at $1 million or more — that are unoccupied, non-primary residences, according to the legislation approved by Albany lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul this spring.
“We used existing information that we had, and it could have been that we don’t have updated information on the applications, filings, the exemptions, but we did use all the available information that we had in order to determine the residency status,” Lee said.
When pressed on why New Yorkers should be saddled with the task of fixing the city’s mix-up, Lee confusingly deflected, saying that the department had its hands tied by state law requiring property rolls be released twice a year for public inspection.
Neither Mamdani nor his finance department head could say how many notices had been sent out. But City Hall later said the number was 17,000, more than the 10,000-13,000 non-primary residences that government officials had estimated would be subject to the surcharge.
As the young mayor faces a brewing firestorm, sources said Hochul — who pushed the surcharge while facing pressure from Mamdani and his Democratic Socialists of America allies to “tax the rich” — seemed to be wiping her hands clean.
“The city determined how they would collect the tax. The system for identifying people and collecting the tax was not part of the legislation. It’s caused confusion,” a state official said.
An Albany insider said the state gave the authority to Mamdani to impose the tax and City Hall took it from there.
“Mamdani’s people said, ‘We have the manpower.’ They really own this one.”
A source told The Post that Lee has gotten an earful from Council Speaker Julie Menin, as well as council members including Lincoln Restler, Phil Wong, Virginia Maloney and Gale Brewer, who received complaints from constituents who were erroneously mailed notices.
Brewer, a longtime Manhattan representative and resident, was named on the DOF’s supplemental tax roll — but told The Post the commissioner assured her she wouldn’t be receiving a bill.
“I told him if I get one of the notifications I’ll throw it in his face,” she said.
Mamdani — who campaigned on government efficiency — was also asked whether anyone should have concerns about the tax being meted out fairly and accurately.
“No. We are committed to ensuring that this is a tax only levied upon those whose second homes are worth more than $5 million,” he stressed.
“And the reason that we wanted to conduct outreach months in advance of when the tax would be levied would be to ensure that the exact balance would be filled.”
