{"id":328310,"date":"2026-08-24T12:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328310\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:11:07","slug":"mamdanis-chaotic-pied-a-terre-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328310\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani\u2019s Chaotic 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<\/p>\n

Good morning,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nToday, we\u2019re looking at\u00a0New York City\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax rollout, state disparate-impact policies, Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s fight with the UFT, and a new book about the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

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

Photo credit:\u00a0Anadolu \/ Contributor \/ Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Last week, New York City political leaders gathered to air concerns about the messy implementation of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s new pied-\u00e0-terre tax.<\/p>\n

And what a mess it has been, indeed. The tax took effect on July 1, and eight days later, the city held a public hearing to finalize the rules. These were approved the next day.<\/p>\n

Then, on July 25, the city published a searchable list of 960,000 properties\u2014based on outdated records\u2014that could be subject to the tax. If homeowners qualified for an exemption, the burden was on them to prove it.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before a group of homeowners sued the city over the tax. As of August 18, the city had completed 5,001 exemption applications out of 9,884 (2,318 have been approved).<\/p>\n

\n\u201cRyan Foley, a senior real-estate litigator at Starr Associates, told me that the surcharge\u2019s inclusion in the state budget allowed it to bypass a legislative process that should have included committee hearings and floor debates,\u201d Daniel Edward Rosen writes. \u201cIts practicality was never fully debated, making problems with implementation and enforcement far more likely.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Last month, the Department of Education announced that it was axing regulations surrounding disparate impact, the idea that demographic disparities are evidence of discrimination, regardless of intent. Now, to determine whether a civil rights violation has been committed, a party will have to show evidence of discriminatory intent\u2014not just demographic data.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe implications of the ruling are significant, but more work remains\u2014especially at the state level, where many have baked disparate-impact doctrine into their laws,\u201d Neetu Arnold explains.<\/p>\n

\nMaryland offers a clear example. A 2014 law requires school districts to submit action plans whenever a school is flagged for demographically disproportionate discipline. \u201cMaryland state policy simply assumes that any \u2018uneven application of discipline to minority and disabled students\u2019 is sufficient to demonstrate \u2018inherent unfairness,\u2019 without any further investigation,\u201d Arnold writes. The Maryland State Department of Education said that it does not expect the federal policy change to affect the law.\n<\/p>\n

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

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

\nNormally, the New York City Council would make provision for one-time cash payments to school paraprofessionals\u2014staff who support teachers and students but are not licensed teachers themselves\u2014as part of regular United Federation of Teachers union contract negotiations. Now, however, the city council has passed legislation to make these payments.<\/p>\n

\nMayor Zohran Mamdani is suing the council over its attempt to make the payments. \u201cThe stakes are far bigger than the council legislation\u2019s quarter-billion-dollar price tag: if courts don\u2019t rule for the mayor, public-employee unions will be emboldened to make more demands that they haven\u2019t been able to win at the bargaining table,\u201d Ken Girardin writes.<\/p>\n

\nRead more<\/a> about the lawsuit and its potential consequences.<\/p>\n

In Last Branch Standing, Sarah Isgur, editor of SCOTUSblog, offers a fun and easy way to understand the American judiciary. She shows that the Supreme Court is \u201ca complex, interesting, fundamentally human organization that deserves to be respected,\u201d Andy Smarick writes. \u201cOverall, the book\u2019s major contribution isn\u2019t to make an extended central argument so much as to offer chunks of knowledge, much of it memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read his review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\n\u201cWashington is one of the most beautiful places in the universe. Especially in the summer. Unfortunately it\u2019s populated primarily by virtue-signaling liberals who have little to no concern as to how the policies they advocate affect real people.\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":37105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-328310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328310","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=328310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}