As a candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani floated the idea last summer of reforming a lopsided property tax system as a way to soften the blow of his plan to freeze rents on a million apartments.
The property tax system for decades has left rental landlords facing disproportionate financial pain, according to a report by Politico.
After all, the tax system long has been an aggravation to New York’s most powerful real estate titans, some of whom backed a lawsuit to upend it nearly a decade ago, Politico reported.
Property tax reform, Politico stated, also is the city’s ultimate political third rail — one that mayors before Mamdani have tried, and failed, to tackle for many years.
Politico said that three months into his term, Mamdani appears well-set to win a rent freeze for some 2 million tenants who live in rent-stabilized homes. A key vote is scheduled for June.
There’s little evidence, however that he’s made any significant progress on overhauling the property tax system itself, which is the city’s biggest revenue source and one of the biggest costs borne by residential landlords, who increasingly warn they’re approaching financial ruin, Politico reported.
Broad Agreement That Reforms Needed
“It was a lot of campaign rhetoric,” said Jay Martin, Executive Vice President of the New York Apartment Association, a landlord group. “The reality when you get into office is much different.”
Politico noted that there is broad agreement beyond just the real estate industry that the tax system should be overhauled.
It said that homeowners, tenant advocates, budget wonks, civil rights groups, left-leaning Democrats and Trump-aligned Republicans mostly agree that the current framework needs to be fixed, and many say it perpetuates racial inequities.
Politico reported that even renters, who make up two-thirds of New York City residents, understand that high property tax costs affect their rents, according to a new report from the Community Service Society, a progressive research group that supports both a rent freeze and property tax reform.
The biggest impediment to major changes is that lowering taxes on one political constituency would necessitate raising them on another, or reducing the total amount generated from property taxes amid a $5.4 billion budget gap, Politico noted.
The disparity Mamdani suggested taking on — reducing the burden on apartment buildings that are taxed at a considerably higher rate than other homes — is among the most difficult to solve, Politico said.
City Hall is Committed
And it isn’t clear where that burden would go. Would it be homeowners? Commercial buildings? Utilities?
“It’s one of those things where, when you push one button, two other buttons light up,” said Democratic state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who represents part of Brooklyn and supports property tax reform.
City Hall maintains that it is committed to overhauling the system, which would need approval in Albany, the state capital. It has yet to share bill language with state lawmakers, however, saying only that it would do so “soon.”
“As Mayor Mamdani has said, our property tax system isn’t just outdated — it’s fundamentally broken and deeply inequitable,” mayoral Spokesperson Joe Calvello said in a statement. “For too long, it has shifted the burden onto working families and tenants while protecting entrenched interests.”
Calvello added: “That’s why our administration will be working closely with our allies to advance a comprehensive package of reforms that will finally deliver a fair, transparent system — one that treats tenants and property owners with the dignity and equity they deserve.”
