Judge orders pause of Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax rollout after homeowners sue

A Staten Island judge on Monday temporarily blocked the controversial rollout of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, which paused enforcement of one of his signature campaign promises: taxing the rich. Shortly after the ruling, New York City filed a motion for permission to appeal, which will stay the order in the lower courts. “The City will continue with the pied-à-terre’s implementation,” Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement. The judge’s order paused the rollout of the surcharge on high-value second homes in the city while a lawsuit brought by a group of homeowners moves forward. The group says the city wrongly flagged their primary residences as subject to the tax. Under the temporary restraining order, the city was ordered to take down the public tax roll and was barred from issuing any additional notices while the order was in effect.