There’s no business like show business, and there’s no city like New York City when it comes to getting sued. The ongoing saga of New York’s pied-à-terre tax continued this week, when attorney Randy Mastro, the former first deputy mayor under Eric Adams, filed a lawsuit last week challenging the city’s rollout of the tax. But after a judge sided with him on Monday, the city filed an appeal hours later that automatically put the ruling on hold.
Mastro filed suit on behalf of three homeowners, arguing the city “botched” the rollout after it first published a supplemental tax roll list and then sent out letters to nearly 17,000 homeowners the city’s Department of Finance considered potentially subject to the tax. While Mastro’s suit doesn’t challenge the tax itself, it challenges how the DOF is carrying it out.
“A botched rollout that didn’t involve any of the work the Mamdani administration should’ve done before sending out any of those letters,” Mastro said in an interview with NY1. He argued the city’s approach put the burden on homeowners rather than on itself. “It tried to flip the burden onto thousands and thousands of homeowners who are New York City residents, who should never have to be put through the burden and expense of having to apply for some exemption because the city didn’t do its job,” Mastro said.
