Political Whisperer
By Robert Hornak
During the race for mayor, Zohran Mamdani’s biggest promised deliverable – the raison d’être for the Democratic Socialists that backed his campaign – was to levy massive new taxes on the wealthier residents of New York City.
Mamdani wanted to raise billions from an income tax levy and from increasing business taxes. This was supposed to be how he paid for all his giveaways, including free buses, free childcare, and city-owned discount supermarkets. Fortunately for city taxpayers, those taxes are under Albany’s control and Governor Hochul put the kybosh on those ideas right from the start.
Eventually, Hochul agreed to allow for a pied-à-terre tax on those who owned luxury second homes in NYC. So, if you are someone who owns a home, condo, or co-op worth more than $5 million, but have your primary residence somewhere else, then this tax would affect you.
The problem for Mamdani is his clumsy, ham-handed rollout of this tax. He sent out warning notices to approximately 17,000 property owners, many whose home is their primary or only residence, and where the value was below the threshold for the tax to apply. Then Mamdani posted a list of around 900,000 property owners online, just about every property owner in the city, effectively doxxing every homeowner, rich and poor, including many thousands who voted for him.
This vastly exceeded the number of properties that would be subject to the tax, and homeowners were naturally more than angry at these tactics. Mamdani was now putting the responsibility to prove they were exempt of the homeowner. It seemed to many like they were under threat to pay even if they didn’t meet the requirements. Or possibly that Mamdani intended to trick some homeowners who don’t understand this process into paying.
After all, this tax was only projected to pay between $300 and $500 million a year, a far cry from the billions Mamdani was planning on extracting from the pockets of NYC’s more successful business owners and job providers in order to close his massive budget shortfall.
So, naturally in the city with one of the highest concentrations of lawyers anywhere in the world, a lawsuit was filed to block implantation of the tax until the convoluted rollout could be fixed and only those who are actually required to pay the tax are properly notified, and those who aren’t don’t have to prove it.
And just this week a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, temporarily blocking implementation of the tax. Mamdani was also ordered to take down the list of homeowners posted and was additionally blocked from issuing any new notices while the order is in effect.
This is a huge blow to Mamdani, who has been unable to deliver on his promise for either free or fast buses, has had his promise for free childcare limited to only a token number of city children, and is struggling to get his city-owned supermarkets opened – maybe the first ones will open next year but way over budget (and with strict limits for purchases and a requirement to show ID).
While this doesn’t kill the tax, it exposes Mamdani as being petty and thin-skinned, After his childish video where he declared victory for this tax while standing in front of the building where one of his critics lives, he now is purposely trying to embarrass every property owner in what can only be seen as an extension of his war on private property.
It also highlights how Mamdani has failed to make living in the city any more affordable for just about anyone, but is surely making it more expensive for some, and especially for those people whose success he objects to. This is driving an increasing number of NYC’s more successful residents to leave the city and move to states more friendly to the productive.
The next hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for August 31. If the judge determines that Mamdani was targeting homeowners in a punitive way it could spell big trouble for his record going forward.
Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who has previously worked for the NYC office of the Republican Assembly Leader and served as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.
