NYC's Second-Home Tax Faces Legal Challenge

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, everybody in the city is panicking about their name being on a list, on a list that, well, it’s gonna cost you a lot more taxes. The Pierre a tear tax with us today is the former first deputy mayor, well former twice. You were the first deputy mayor under Ruby Giuliani. You’re the first deputy mayor under Eric Adams,

0:24 Randy Mashaw. You’re now the attorney to defend the system. Give us an update on the nine hundred and seventy five thousand people they that were on that list. I understand a few less people are on the crap list.

0:41 Speaker 2 So John, pleasure to be with you as always. I represent several of the homeowners who showed up on that original list of nine hundred and seventy five thousand New Yorkers that the Mandani administration said is related to the surcharge.

1:02 Wasn’t related to the surcharge at all. Then seventeen thousand New York City homeowners got letters noticed letters from the Mandani administration had said, quote, you may be subject to the new surcharge and switching the burden to them to seek an exemption proving that they live in their own homes.

1:29 Instead of following what the state law required of the city in giving the city the right to impose such a second home surcharge, it said, the city has to make that initial determination, and it has to review the evidence and the information available to it, make that determination in good faith, and then advise individuals.

1:53 Speaker 3 The city didn’t do that. The city switched to burden. The city took the cop out way and said, I’m going to switch the burden to you to prove it’s actually your home, and if you don’t do it, if you don’t apply for one of these exemptions, we’re going to deem you subject to the tax. Now, here’s the problem.

2:12 Seventeen thousand people got that letter, and it only goes to homes valued at more than five million, and co ops and condos valued at more than one millions the same.

2:24 Speaker 1 Now, when you say the word value, is that the assessed valuation that’s on your normal tax bill.

2:31 Speaker 3 Or if it supposed to be your market assessed value. And John, there’s only twenty four thousand homes total in New York City that meet those thresholds. Are you telling me that seventeen thousand out of those twenty four thousand that’s over seventy percent our second homes. They’re pieditors. They are largely unutilized or underutilized because they’re owned by people

2:59 who don’t live in New York City. That is absurd. But this is what the Mondanie administration did to try to burden New York City homeowners and impose the tax on them, the surcharge, even though they’re not responsible for the surch charge. At the end of the day, there will only be a few thousand. We had five six

3:20 thousand maybe homes in New York City, which is a very small percentage.

3:28 Speaker 1 What we’d like to do at a certain point is you have to fight whatever you think you’re fighting the right thing to do about for our city residents. Now, my official residence is New York City, my son’s official residence is New York City, my daughter’s official residence is New York City. So I should not have a bill.

3:51 Speaker 3 Right, of course, you shouldn’t have a bill. You should never have shown up on that list of nine hundred and seventy five hous of New Yorkers. And if you’ve got one of those notices, it’s ridiculous, it’s outrageous. John, I got one of those notices. I’m the former first deputy mayor who until December thirty one had as a

4:13 legal requirement that I had to live in the city. But I’ve been living here for forty years and paying taxes here for forty years too. Was it so hard for the Mandani administration to check the tax records and see that, well, let me have the taxes and we live here. No, but they didn’t get it.

4:30 Speaker 1 Randy Meshro, you know, should the state be overseeing this because it made it made a lot of people angry. Shouldn’t the state be overseeing it?

4:42 Speaker 3 Well, I think that it’s incumbent. I’m the governor who endorsed this at Mayor Mondanie’s request, and the state legislature to look into this. The city council is looking into it. Julia Manna has said she’s going to do that. But what the Mondannie administration did here was it blatantly vi related the state law that authorized implementation of the statue.

5:05 It was very strict that state law. It was you city have to make the initial determination in good faith that the property meets the value thresholds and that it really is a second home. And there’s lots of documents available to you city, including tax records. So nobody’s paying New York City taxes unless they live here, right, But

5:27 the city didn’t do that, so they sent these notices to people like me who everybody knows I live in this city, like everybody knows you live in this city.

5:36 Speaker 1 John, that’s correct. I mean we both live here now, So can we get somebody to oversee this from the state or the city to do the right thing.

5:51 Speaker 3 Well, John, that’s why we’re going to be going to court, Right, We’re going to be going to get a court order that basically says those notices in that list they are a nullody, they are invalid, they are illegal, they violate the state statutory mandate and judges that.

6:09 Speaker 1 The judges that are looking at it are probably on that list.

6:14 Speaker 4 Some of them are, John, because some of them are New York City homeowners. Right, Yes, but look, sometimes you have to go to court, you have to stand up to city Hall, you have to fight, and I intend to go to court to fight on behalf of all New Yorkers who got these illegal notices, all the hundreds

6:31 of thousands of New Yorkers who ended up on that list where they’re private personal information about who they are, where they live, what their property values are. Never should have been published, never should have happened. And now the switching the burden to thousands of New York City homeowners who live here and have to prove they live in

6:52 their own homes, that’s just totally outrageous.

6:55 Speaker 1 Randy mass Show, thank you for coming on this Sunday morning, and we’re waking you up, I know. And let’s talk again real soon. Keep us informed so we can keep the zinion amount of people listening to w ABC to know what’s really going on. Thank you so much.

7:11 Speaker 3 Thank you, John, pleasure to be with you.