city homeowners suing the city over the rollout<\/a> \u2014 called the Mamdani administration\u2019s attempted end-run to keep implementing the tax \u201can astonishing display of chutzpah.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt is a shame that the City can\u2019t own up to its own mistakes and admit that it has badly botched the rollout of this surcharge,\u201d Mastro said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, the administration is doubling down, going to court to ensure that it can continue harassing and threatening New York City homeowners who clearly are permanent residents \u2014 something the City would know if it would only do its homework.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani had pushed the tax, which needed approval from the state, as part of his \u201ctax the rich\u201d crusade. Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers pushed through the tax in the spring and it was to be charged on one- to three-family homes worth at least $5 million and condos valued at $1 million that are unoccupied, non-primary residents.<\/p>\n
But confusion has reigned over the rollout since, with critics wondering how the city would calculate which property owners would get with the tax.<\/p>\n
City officials published a database of 900,000 homeowners who might get hit by the tax with Mamdani gloating to rich residents to \u201ccheck your mailbox when you\u2019re back in the five boroughs, because you\u2019ve got mail.\u201d <\/p>\n
The list confused many homeowners, with many saying a large chunk of the properties seemed to be outside of the tax\u2019s scope.<\/p>\n
The city Department of Finance had mailed out 17,000 notices to homeowners, telling them they could be slapped with the tax unless they requested an exemption. The mess prompted the lawsuit from some of the homeowners who claimed to have incorrectly received the notices.<\/p>\n
The city meanwhile appealed the temporary pause on the rollout.<\/p>\n
Mastro\u2019s filing accused the city of \u201cnegligence, laziness or intentionality\u201d ignoring the data at their fingertips to make these tax determinations prior to the scattershot of mailed notices, suggesting that the city may have intentionally hoped to rake in extra cash over a failure to file an exemption by the deadline.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the latest drama on Zohran Mamdani\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax rollout:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reasonable explanation is that the City is trying to ensnare thousands more New York City residents who are not liable for this Surcharge into having to pay it anyway,\u201d Mastro wrote Thursday in a court filing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t terrorize first and then clarify,\u201d Mastro said in the hearing, \u201cwhich is exactly what the city is trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former first deputy mayor Randy Mastro \u2014 representing three peeved city homeowners suing the city over the rollout \u2014 called the Mamdani administration\u2019s attempted end-run to keep implementing the tax is \u201can astonishing display of chutzpah.\u201d Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n
Staten Island Supreme Court Judge Wayne Ozzi himself raised that very concern in court as he delivered his ruling on Monday that the city may have violated the statute by not doing required due diligence prior to sending notices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if they surcharge people who are surcharged only because they didn\u2019t file for an exemption, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s appropriate,\u201d the judge said, according to a transcript.<\/p>\n
City attorneys claim that the pause will ultimately cause massive headaches to taxpayers, since the state law creating the new tax came with stipulations and deadlines for when the city can rollout the fee.<\/p>\n
The Post\u2019s cover on Staten Island Supreme Court Judge Wayne Ozzi pausing the pied-\u00e0-terre tax rollout.<\/p>\n
Corporation counsel Steve Banks also cited the \u201csorely needed revenues for the City to help close its generational budget gap\u201d as a harm that could result from the order.<\/p>\n
Banks argued the appeals court should confirm what the city has already stated as fact: that their move to appeal automatically triggered a stay of the lower court proceedings \u2014 including the restraining order \u2014 and that they would proceed with the roll-out as if nothing happened.<\/p>\n
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The homeowners lawsuit argued that Mamdani\u2019s tax rollout violated the new state law allowing for the tax because city officials ignored state data that the statute specifically granted them to make an accurate assessment of who would be be eligible for the tax.<\/p>\n
In reality, the suit claims city officials left that assessment to New Yorkers, burdening them to prove their city bona fides within a since extended one-month deadline.<\/p>\n
Two of the suing homeowners \u2014 Rachel O\u2019Brien and Carmine Morano, the wife and father of City Councilman Frank Morano \u2014 are Staten Island residents and had their homes listed on the published tax roll alongside nearly every other property in the city.<\/p>\n
A third homeowner in the suit, Chelsea resident and self-declared Mamdani supporter Simon Hedley, received one of the 17,000 mailed notices, according to the filing.<\/p>\n
Hedley has since been granted an exemption, applying for one after the lawsuit was filed.<\/p>\n
City Hall did not immediately respond for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pause is on pause. Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s stumbling pied-\u00e0-terre tax rollout is back in effect after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[302,57,9,11,10,79763,7754,2780,58,82],"class_list":["post-320811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-city-hall","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pied-a-terre","tag-property-taxes","tag-taxes","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320811","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=320811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}