Some longtime city residents are crying foul after getting letters from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration saying they need to prove that New York City is their primary residence — or they’ll face a new property tax that’s only supposed to be targeting wealthy out-of-towners.
“This sloppiness is probably going to end up hurting people the most,” Marvin Ciporen, a retired teacher and nonprofit consultant, told NY1.
He has lived in his four-story, single-family home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, since 1973.
“Not only do we actually live here, but my daughter and my grandsons live upstairs in the house. But again, there’s by no stretch of the imagination can this be considered a second home,” he said.
But last week, Ciporen got a letter from Mamdani’s Department of Finance saying, prove it.
“The Department of Finance could have easily verified that through our tax records, which always are from this address and that always indicate we’re here 12 months a year,” he explained.
The city wrote in a letter that his home “may be subject to the new surcharge” or pied-à-terre tax. And because the property’s market value is over $5.2 million, he’d have to pay a $41,000 tax increase.
“The city should have done that kind of work of finding out what might be a second home, rather than putting the burden on taxpayers. It’s the kind of thing that is upsetting and time consuming, but also undermines people’s confidence in government. Why burden me with doing something that in the 21st century you could do with a few clicks before you send out letters?” Ciporen told NY1.
“I believe in the pied-à-terre tax. I’m strongly concerned about the gross [inequalities] in wealth and income that we have in the city. But you don’t go about that by harassing middle-class homeowners needlessly,” he added.
Now, Ciporen has until Aug. 21 to apply for an exemption from the city.
So, why is it up to Ciporen?
The city told NY1 to ask state legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“As per state law, a property roll was released for public inspection. From this list, DOF will identify properties that may be subject to the new non-primary residence property surcharge,” Mamdani spokeswoman Monica Klein said.
“If someone’s on a list and they want to challenge it, that is their right so, I’m happy to look at whether or not it requires any change in the law but right now I’m not seeing that,” Hochul said Tuesday during a separate press conference in Brooklyn.
Hochul pitched the tax to help the mayor close his multi-billion dollar city budget, then, approving it as part of the state’s $277 billion spending plan.
“There are people who have no idea that this applies to them, so elevating the notification probably sounds like the way to make sure that people know,” she added.
While the city annually posts property tax rolls, a new list published has 100s of 1,000s of names and addresses that could qualify.
Single- to three-family homes, co-ops, condos and mixed-use properties like commercial spaces that aren’t solely rental properties.
Some say it’s still sloppy.
“This is really ridiculous because there’s no home in this condo that meets the million-dollar threshold, let alone the $5 million threshold,” Republican Councilman David Carr said, who explained that not only is his condominium on that list, but many of his neighbors’ properties.
“I’m not really sure what went wrong here because it just looks like they took a list of properties of you know, one- and two-family homes across the city,” he told NY1.
“It really starts to add yet another reason for them to look elsewhere and put up that for sale sign, and that’s what we should be, you know, deterring people from doing,” Carr said.
The city did not answer a question about how many owners got letters from the Department of Finance asking them to prove their residency status.
The tax is estimated to generate an estimated $500 million annually.
