{"id":205939,"date":"2026-04-22T12:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:11:13","slug":"new-yorks-nonsensical-pied-a-terre-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205939\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Nonsensical Pied-\u00e0-Terre Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nForwarded this email? Sign up<\/a> for free to have it sent directly to your inbox.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"City\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Good morning,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nToday, we\u2019re looking at\u00a0New York\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax, a bad move with the city\u2019s pension funds, an alternative to Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s free buses, and a Frenchman\u2019s run-in with extensive bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nWrite to us at editors@city-journal.org<\/a> with questions or comments.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo credit:\u00a0Taylor Crothers \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images News via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\nLast week, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan that would allow New York City to implement a new tax on apartments and houses valued at more than $5 million if these buildings aren\u2019t listed as permanent residences. Hochul and Mamdani claim the tax will bring in an extra $500 million each year.<\/p>\n

\nBut the new levy \u201cwon\u2019t help the city\u2019s economy or its broken property tax system,\u201d Ken Girardin and Jared Walczak argue, and it will introduce a host of new problems. Taxpayers will look for ways to reduce their tax burdens. Investing in new high-end properties will become less attractive. Putting a value on homes will become more volatile\u2014owners will try to undervalue their properties or game the system. And the city will lose out on the economic boon these second homes bring.<\/p>\n

These buildings \u201cgenerate substantial\u202fproperty-tax revenue while their nonresident owners put comparably little strain on local budgets,\u201d Girardin and Walczak write. \u201cThose residents do not, for instance, have kids enrolled in local schools, and their high incomes mean that they are not using means-tested local services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRead more<\/a> about the proposal.<\/p>\n

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine recently announced that $4 billion of the city\u2019s pension assets would be directed toward building affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\nThis is a bad call, Allison Schrager argues. Levine\u2019s job is to invest the funds in a way that ensures they will be paid\u2014and choosing a money-losing asset class goes directly against his fiduciary duty. For one thing, since pension benefits are guaranteed, taxpayers bear the burden if they fall short. And pouring money into \u201clocal real estate further exposes the funds to the local economy,\u201d Schrager writes. \u201cIf New York City faces a downturn, real-estate investment will decline in value as the job market weakens and tax revenue shrinks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a> about Levine\u2019s decision and why Schrager calls it \u201cpoor risk management.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan for free buses is expensive: it would mean forgoing $1 billion in revenue. Researchers at NYU\u2019s Marron Institute have a better idea: build out the subways.<\/p>\n

\nIn their new report, they propose adding 41 new miles of subway and 64 new stations, which, they maintain, could allow for 167,000 new housing units. It would generate significant new wealth, too, as new subway stations would boost land values and give individuals more access to employers and businesses more access to customers.<\/p>\n

\nRead more<\/a> about the plan and why Adam Lehodey calls it \u201can excellent place to start.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSix years ago, Benjamin Bri\u00e8re was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for espionage. A French native, he was visiting the country for his travel blog and decided to use a drone to take photos near the border with Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n

\nHe was released from prison after three years, but when he returned to France, he discovered his name had been removed from the French social security system. When he explained to the authorities why he hadn\u2019t filed a tax return in four years, they weren\u2019t sympathetic.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cFrench commentary suggests that this absurdity\u2014this complete inflexibility of the administration and inability to admit exceptions on its own initiative\u2014is both typical of, and unique to, France,\u201d Theodore Dalrymple writes. \u201cBut of course, it is not: it could happen in any country with an oversized government and administration, where following procedure is the main business of life and fear of departing from it pervades existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRead more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI absolutely love Mayor Mamdani. He\u2019s doing everything he can to increase my home\u2019s value in Uptown Charlotte, NC. The number of capital markets and finance jobs being added in Charlotte is astounding, and I sincerely appreciate what he is doing to market Charlotte as a great place to live and work.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Brian C. Anderson.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 Manhattan Institute, All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forwarded this email? Sign up for free to have it sent directly to your inbox.\u00a0\u00a0 Good morning, \u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-205939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}