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Gov. Kathy Hochul pitched her proposed pied-a-terre tax as a silver bullet for New York City’s budget woes — but instead, it appears to be a tangled gordian knot.
As private job creation slows in a state ranking last for tax competitiveness, New York’s political operatives are sparring over a new tax on luxury second homes instead of focusing on investments and growth.
On Thursday, Hochul unveiled the workings of a tax that she initially said would apply to secondary properties worth more than $5 million.
Now she says that for the first two years, all second homes with a “market value” north of $1 million will be hit by the charge, further compounding its destructive effects.
Under New York’s current labyrinthine property-tax formula, levies on co-ops and condominiums are assessed not on the sale price of a unit, but on a “market value” arrived at by examining what units in buildings of a similar age and size would rent for.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Adam Lehodey is an investigative reporter at City Journal, covering governance, economics, and cultural affairs in New York City.