Kamillah Hanks<\/a>, who represents the North Shore of Staten Island, called the Mamdani administration\u2019s implementation of the tax \u201cbotched\u201d and \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d as she pointed to the city\u2019s publication of a massive tax roll related to the new fees.<\/p>\n The surcharge slaps an extra tax on one-, two- and three-family non-owner-occupied homes assessed at $5 million or more and co-ops and condos valued at $1 million or more.<\/p>\n \u201cHow the administration published more than 900,000 names and addresses showed me that this is how the administration feels about homeowners in this great city. That this is something that we need to be ashamed of\u2014a hit list of the haves and the have-nots, a scarlet letter,\u201d Hanks said.<\/p>\n Finance Commissioner Richard Lee submitted a five-page written testimony instead of fielding questions, saying he \u201cwould have welcomed the opportunity to appear in person,\u201d but couldn\u2019t because of a lawsuit filed against the city over its handling of the tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n The suit is expected to be resolved in an Aug. 31\u00a0hearing<\/a>. Lee said the administration requested the hearing be put off until after that date, but the Council declined.<\/p>\n It\u2019s common practice for the city to testify at Council hearings despite ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever government implements a new law affecting thousands of property owners, questions inevitably arise,\u201d Lee wrote. \u201cGovernment should communicate clearly and effectively about new policies, and (the Department of Finance) is committed to doing that, not just with respect to this law, but across all aspects of DOF\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n The pied-\u00e0-terre tax is expected to\u00a0raise about $500 million for the city\u2019s coffers<\/a>, officials said.<\/p>\n Three homeowners filed the lawsuit against the city earlier this month, taking issue with its publication of a huge tax roll that listed\u00a0nearly 1 million properties<\/a>\u00a0and noted that all of the properties on the list could be subject to the tax.<\/p>\n The city sent letters to around 17,000 individuals who\u2019d been identified as second-homeowners subject to the surcharge. Homeowners have until Sept. 18 to apply for an exemption from the tax by claiming they, a family member, or a tenant lives in the home.<\/p>\n Staten Island Councilmember Frank Morano\u2019s wife and father-in-law were two of the original three plaintiffs in that lawsuit. Also on Tuesday,\u00a0four new plaintiffs joined<\/a>: Ken Fishel, a\u00a0real estate executive<\/a>, Sandra Jacobus Shore, a real estate attorney, her husband, Stephen Shore, and Carla Stearns, a real estate agent,<\/p>\n \u201cLitigation is not a hall pass from legislative oversight,\u201d Morano said about Lee\u2019s absence at the hearing. \u201cThe more New Yorkers and the more this council learned about this whole process, the more clear it was how rotten it was, how bungled it was, and the more questions we had.\u201d<\/p>\n Just over 5,000 people have filed exemption applications so far, according to City Hall. About 2,300 of those have been approved.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, campaigned on a \u201ctax the rich\u201d platform of raising income and corporate tax rates. Those proposals have met resistance from more moderate lawmakers like Gov. Kathy Hochul and Council Speaker Julie Menin. But this property tax surcharge on second homes, which was intended to be a more targeted measure for those who don\u2019t claim the city as their home but own expensive property here, was largely celebrated by local lawmakers, including Menin, when Hochul passed it in this year\u2019s state budget.<\/p>\n Despite that, wealthy opponents of the tax have been vociferous, and the Mamdani administration\u2019s rollout of it has been highly scrutinized.<\/p>\n Charles Diamond, a former special counsel for the mayor\u2019s office, called the Mamdani administration\u2019s absence at the hearing \u201cutterly, utterly bizarre,\u201d adding that he himself has testified before the Council on behalf of the Adams administration while facing litigation on the topic at hand.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t even own a home, but I\u2019m so disturbed by this process that I felt the need to kind of point out what I saw and to really thank the council for refusing to abridge its responsibilities during a time like this,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n Ana Champeny, vice president of the\u00a0Citizens Budget Commission<\/a>, called the city\u2019s implementation of the tax \u201crocky\u201d and voiced concern about the tax\u2019s abbreviated timeline in which it was passed into law by the state and then rolled out.<\/p>\n \u201cInsufficient vetting of the legislation, a compressed rollout timeline, and inadequate communication all contributed to confusion about who is liable and how much information would be public. Both the City and State can learn from the program\u2019s early stumbles,\u201d she said before the Council.<\/p>\n Ahead of the hearing, two modest rallies played out in front of City Hall: One a smattering of brokers holding signs that read \u201cDox You Very Much\u201d on the steps, organized by the New York Residential Agent Continuum, and another by members of the Democratic Socialists of America and the New York Working Families Party who chanted \u201cTax the rich!\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement that because the hearing was \u201cexplicitly focused\u201d on the topic of the lawsuit and that the action was brought by Morano\u2019s family, \u201cthe Administration did not believe that it would be prudent and in the legal interest of the City to appear in person.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo caption: New York City Hall (Momos\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n _______<\/p>\n \u00a92026 New York Daily News. Visit\u00a0nydailynews.com<\/a>. 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