Hochul Urges Fix to NYC’s $500 Million Second-Home Tax Rollout as Mamdani Faces Backlash
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 21
Hochul Urges Fix to NYC’s $500 Million Second-Home Tax Rollout as Mamdani Faces Backlash
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 21
Summary
Kathy Hochul said New York City’s second-home tax rollout “has to be cleaned up and fixed,” after warning Mayor Zohran Mamdani that the policy’s rollout and messaging were mishandled.
Confusion over who would owe the tax, and outrage from some homeowners and business leaders, turned what had been a compromise tax deal into a political headache for both City Hall and the governor.
Hochul, a pro-business moderate, objected to Mamdani’s public framing of the levy as “taxing the rich,” including his focus on hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, saying the city should have targeted foreign oligarchs instead.
The tax applies to second homes over $5 million or condos over $1 million and is expected to raise about $500 million a year, but its launch already drew scrutiny over a public list of nearly 1 million properties.