NEW YORK CITY—New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani are backing a tax on owners of second homes in the city worth $5 million or more.
Announced by Hochul on April 14, the proposal aims to raise $500 million from non-residents to help New York City cover its $5.4 billion budget deficit. Speaking April 15 at a Tax Day Forum at City University of New York Graduate Center, Mamdani described the current system as unfair and said the wealthy should contribute more to the city.
He characterized owners of such homes as “the super wealthy who can purchase properties and use them to store their wealth, who can benefit from New York City’s real estate market but not have to pay back into that same city that generated so much of that wealth in the way that they should.”…