{"id":613,"date":"2026-08-19T20:45:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=613"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:45:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:45:49","slug":"councils-pied-a-terre-hearing-produces-many-grievances-few-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=613","title":{"rendered":"Council\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre hearing produces many grievances, few answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New York City Council members read out 11 pages of questions over 17 minutes about the city\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax rollout at an oversight hearing on Tuesday, probing in detail how Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration came to decide how to notify homeowners about the tax and determine eligibility.<\/p>\n

Read more Meet the new kingmaker who could lead the Brooklyn Democratic Party<\/a><\/p>\n

But Council Members Gale Brewer and Linda Lee read the long list of questions to a row of empty chairs in the City Council chambers, as no one from the Mamdani administration showed up to testify.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to send all these questions to the agencies, and boy, do we expect an answer,\u201d Brewer said at a press conference in advance of the hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The oversight hearing marked a new point of strain in the relationship between the Mamdani administration and the council led by Speaker Julie Menin. Council leaders have actively criticized the rollout of the pied-\u00e0-terre tax, a surcharge on high-value second homes passed by the state Legislature earlier this year as part of a deal to generate revenue for the city to close its budget gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council had hoped to grill Mamdani administration officials about the rollout of the tax, which drew controversy this summer. (The administration published a list \u2013\u00a0required, they argued \u2013\u00a0of nearly one million potentially eligible properties and sent notice letters to about 17,000 homeowners stating their properties could be subject to it, to much consternation.)<\/p>\n

The administration extended a window to appeal initial determinations of eligibility until Sept. 18. According to City Hall, 9,884 applications for exemptions have been started, 5,001 have been completed and 2,318 have been approved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The planned hearing was a perfect opportunity for Menin, who campaigned on holding the Mamdani administration accountable and juicing the body\u2019s oversight function, to do just that. But City Hall\u2019s announcement on Monday that they wouldn\u2019t be attending due to ongoing litigation concerning the tax \u2013\u00a0something that hasn\u2019t precluded testimony in the past \u2013\u00a0robbed the council of the chance.<\/p>\n

And while neither Mamdani nor Menin was actually at the hearing, it seemed to function at points as a proxy battle between their allies. Dueling press conferences were held at the same time right before the hearing. One featured council members including Brewer, who supports the tax in general, and moderate Democrat and Republican members, who vehemently oppose it, all of whom expressed dismay at the administration\u2019s refusal to testify. A stone\u2019s throw away in City Hall Park, progressive Assembly Members Diana Moreno and Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas and state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez rallied with organizations aligned with Mamdani, including the New York City Democratic Socialists of America and the New York Working Families Party, to support the tax. \u201cIt is good governance to support our mayor, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, when he says he needs this for the city budget,\u201d Gonzalez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more We Covered a Zoo? The best and worst press conference locations<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaker Menin is inside holding a hearing because she wants to listen to the whining millionaires,\u201d Jasmine Gripper, director of the state Working Families Party, said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have time for whining millionaires, we need to take care of our people and our communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In written testimony submitted to the council, Department of Finance Commissioner Richard Lee said they asked to postpone the hearing until after Aug. 31, the date of the next hearing in the lawsuit over the tax. \u201cThe Council declined,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

In the end, the hearing primarily featured public testimony and devolved at points into a referendum on the pied-\u00e0-terre tax itself, which passed in May as part of the state budget.<\/u> A cohort, including the Real Estate Board of New York, called for a pause in the tax.<\/p>\n

But the hearing also had a strong showing of defenders of the tax. Inwood resident Beverly Solow testified in support of the tax while wearing a \u201ctax the rich\u201d shirt. \u201cIt seems reasonable and fair,\u201d she said, while noting that the rollout was messy and hoped that issues with implementing the tax could be resolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point, Brewer reminded a group of people testifying in support of the tax that the council \u2013\u00a0at large, at least \u2013\u00a0isn\u2019t actually against it. \u201cI want you to know that Council Member Lee and I in particular support this tax,\u201d she said, noting that Menin does too.<\/p>\n

Council Member Eric Dinowitz said in the hearing that he also supports the tax, but \u201cwithout the administration here to even discuss these things on the record in public, it\u2019s very difficult to address these issues in a public forum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Lawmakers push Hochul to backfill cuts for crime victims, child advocacy centers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City Council had 11 pages of questions, but the Mamdani administration declined to appear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,20,71,18,122,136],"tags":[24,21,73,19,123,137],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing","category-new-york-city","category-new-york-city-council","category-policy","category-real-estate","category-taxes","tag-housing","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-council","tag-policy","tag-real-estate","tag-taxes"],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre hearing produces many grievances, few answers - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=613\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre hearing produces many grievances, few answers - 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