April 18, 2026, 5:06 a.m. ET
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has new plans to meet the $5.4billion budget deficit – and capitalists everywhere are furious.
On April 15, Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new proposal for a “pied-à-terre tax,” which aims at charging owners of one- to three-family homes worth $5 million or more for having secondary residences in New York City.
“Our administration is fighting every day to make sure we address this fiscal deficit fairly, where the wealthy contribute what they owe and our budget reflects our commitment to the working New Yorkers being priced out of our city,” Mamdani said in a statement.
While progressives are celebrating the implementation of “tax the rich” policies, others are losing their minds over the possibility of people paying a tax on their multimillion dollar vacation homes and investment properties.
“Anyone who gets excited about other people getting taxed more is a pathetic, greedy little person and a bad American,” X user Frank J. Fleming wrote in response to Mamdani’s announcement, receiving over 2,000 likes.
It’s hilarious that some netizens are so willing to go to bat for the wealthiest people in the world who are driving up the cost of housing in New York City – especially those who don’t live here.
According to the mayor’s office, 93% of New Yorkers support a pied-à-terre tax. I personally don’t see anything wrong with it – why shouldn’t the ultrawealthy people who can afford a vacation home here have to pay for it?
Trump leads the pied-à-terre tax meltdown parade
President Donald Trump, who famously seemed enamored with Mamdani a few months ago, even weighed in on this and other tax reforms Mamdani has proposed in a Truth Social post on April 16 – probably because it will affect people like him.
“Sadly, Mayor Mamdani is DESTROYING New York!” Trump wrote. “It has no chance! The United States of America should not contribute to its failure. It will only get WORSE. The TAX, TAX, TAX Policies are SO WRONG.”
Yet it doesn’t seem to be the rich who can afford second homes being priced out of New York City – it’s the people who were raised here who can no longer afford to call the city home.
More than 125,000 non-Hispanic Black residents have left the city over the past 20 years, according to a 2023 analysis from Gothamist, due in part to the city’s affordability crisis.
Meanwhile, the number of millionaires in the city has grown by 45% over the past decade to nearly 385,000.
It seems like there are plenty of people who can afford to treat the city as their playground at the expense of the working class, and I doubt a property tax is going to drive them all away.
Turns out you can tax the rich
It shouldn’t be outlandish to ask rich people to pay their fair share – especially as their vacation homes drive up the cost of living for New Yorkers who can barely afford to rent a home in the city, let alone buy one.
“Asking those who hold multimillion-dollar second homes, often sitting empty most of the year, to contribute more is not just reasonable, it’s necessary,” Darius Gordon, the executive director for the Met Council on Housing, said in a statement to USA TODAY. “It’s a step toward correcting a system that has long tilted toward wealth over stability for everyday New Yorkers.”
At the same time, Gordon added, this proposal falls short of expectations from housing advocates. It makes sense – the pied-à-terre tax will only generate $500 million in annual revenue if approved. All of Mamdani’s tax reforms need to be passed in the state government in Albany for the city to make up for its budget deficit.
In the meantime, New York City is once again showing the rest of the country that it should be, in fact, possible to tax the wealthiest people in America – even if it infuriates them and their followers.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social
