Cross your fingers that a state judge’s slapdown of the pied-à-terre tax’s rollout marks the beginning of the end of the whole misbegotten tax.
This week’s ruling came in a case challenging the burden the city placed on homeowners to prove they don’t owe the tax, which applies to nonresidents who own co-ops and condos valued $1 million or more or one-, two- and three-family homes worth $5 million and up.
Not only did City Hall require homeowners to prove they resided in Gotham for more than half the year, it told 17,000 New Yorkers they may be liable for the tax, and posted a list of 900,000 city properties as potentially ripe for the hit, which the judge ordered removed.
While the city prepares to appeal that ruling, other plaintiffs filed two more suits contesting the legality of the tax itself.
In one case, uber-wealthy plaintiffs Wilbur Ross and Steve Wynn argue the tax unconstitutionally discriminates against nonresidents, who “by definition, cannot vote against lawmakers” who impose the tax.
They also argue the tax violates the state’s real-estate-tax cap.
And the other new suit is even more powerful.
For starters, its plaintiffs aren’t billionaires but everyday residents, with compelling stories.
- Robert Friedman lived in his $2.2 million Upper East side co-op for many years but recently moved to Suffolk County and maintains the unit in a trust for his two kids, the lawsuit states; under the PAT, his taxes will nearly double, from an already steep $103, 084 to a punitive $190,891.
- Kent Barwick, the longtime head of both the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Municipal Arts Society, bought his property 50 years ago but moved upstate during COVID and now faces an unaffordable four-fold spike in his tax bill.
- Scott Golden and Stephanie Cohen of Florida sold their apartment in July, but because the tax is retroactive to Jan. 5, their bill of less than $2,000 shot up to $48,900 — almost 25 times higher.
- Yet another plaintiff is a co-op building, which has to cover the tax of shareholders who live outside the city for part of the year, including some who have sold their units.
Their lawyer, former Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, cites numerous constitutional violations, including the Privileges and Immunities Clause, Dormant Commerce Clause, Due Process Clause, Equal Protection clauses and Contracts Clauses.
But the bottom line is Mayor Zohran Mandani sought to spend billions more than the city could afford, so Gov. Kathy Hochul came up with this complicated “tax the rich” gimmick to buy his goodwill.
New York’s far-left courts may back her up, despite tax’s constitutional breaches.
If not, count on the federal courts to step in.
Hope someone does, because legal arguments aside, pols like Hochul and Mamdani need to learn they can’t just invent new taxes so they can keep on spending so recklessly.
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