New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani speaks at the New York State Board of Financial Control’s Annual Conference on August 12, 2026 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
New York City’s pied-a-terre tax can continue its planned implementation while it faces legal challenges, an appeals judge ruled Thursday.
The ruling comes after Staten Island Judge Wayne Ozzi on Monday issued a temporary restraining order temporarily suspending taxes on vacation homes over a certain amount. The tax has become a signature policy of New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani.
The Mamdani government filed a motion for appeal and an automatic stay was triggered. Earlier Thursday, New York City asked the Court of Appeals to confirm the automatic moratorium, arguing that Otzi’s ruling “threatens to derail the city’s time-sensitive efforts to introduce new levies.”
The lawsuit was brought by three city residents who challenged the legality of its introduction, not the tax itself. Their lawsuit highlights that the city distributed a list with information about thousands of homeowners and mailed notices to 17,000 people on the list advising them that they may be subject to the new tax.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has drawn the ire of conservatives and the wealthy, but otherwise remains widely popular in the city, according to recent opinion polls.
President Donald Trump, a Queens native who once lived in Trump Tower in Manhattan but moved his home base to Florida in 2019, declared in a Truth social post on Tuesday that second home surcharges “must stop now!”
“We are considering whether the federal government has the legal right to avert this disaster before it is too late,” Trump wrote.
It is unclear whether President Trump or his immediate family will be subject to New York City taxes. Attorney General Todd Blanche declined Wednesday to say whether the Justice Department is considering legal options for the tax.
