By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-11 22:48:00 | Updated at 2026-08-11 23:06:03
18 minutes ago
They’re sticking it to the tax Mam.
A trio of New Yorkers — two family members of a GOP lawmaker and the other a self-described supporter of Mayor Zohran Mamdani – are the standard bearers for a legal fight that temporarily put New York City’s pied-à-terre tax on hold.
Rachel O’Brien, whose husband is City Councilman Frank Morano (R-Staten Island), said she joined the high-profile lawsuit after Mamdani’s administration included their home on a published list of more than 900,000 properties that could fall under the new levy.
“As soon as I saw it I was confused and a little bit angry that the city would do this,” O’Brien, 41, told The Post as she cared for her newborn child Tuesday. “I immediately knew it was wrong and I had conversations with my husband, who’s a city councilman and he had been receiving phone calls from constituents who were on the list and confused and worried.”
O’Brien said she immediately thought about how it was “crazy” that the city was “able to do this and just sort of throw people’s lives into disarray.”
“It’s the city just putting unnecessary stress on middle income homeowners who are just going to work, paying their mortgages, paying their property taxes, utilities — trying to raise their families like we’re doing,” she said.
“The mayor didn’t seem to care that this rollout was based on completely erroneous information, so I wanted to set the record straight with this lawsuit.”
Neighbors, friends and relatives who likewise were surprised to discover their own homes appeared on the controversial list — which was published on the city Department of Finance website late last month — have overwhelmingly supported the suit, she said.
“It’s been received well just because people feel the same way — that the city botched this,” O’Brien said. “They’re essentially doxing lawful property owners and was done in such a sloppy manner that confused and in some cases intimidated people.”
The pied-à-terre tax is meant to hit the wealthy owners of secondary residences in New York City: one- to three-family homes worth at least $5 million and co-ops and condominiums valued at $1 million.
But the suit filed Friday alleges that the owners of properties on the “supplemental tax roll” — including O’Brien and her father-in-law and fellow plaintiff Carmine Morano — were effectively doxed and sent into unnecessary panic because the vast majority wouldn’t be subject to the surcharge.
Another group of 17,000 New Yorkers — represented by Chelsea resident Simon Hedley in the lawsuit — received mailed notices from the DOF warning them they’d be hit with the tax unless they filed for an exemption.
Hedley, a Mamdani supporter who didn’t take issue with the pied-à-terre law approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul, joined the case in frustration over City Hall’s apparent scattershot approach to implementing the levy.
“They don’t seem to have done any due diligence around town, as far as I can tell; they’ve scatter-gunned thousands and thousands of people without really knowing who’s who,” he told The Post after the suit was filed.
“Now, it’s the burden of proof on the residents to prove they are residents,” the frustrated New Yorker said.
Hedley’s only home is in Chelsea, and, since the suit was filed, he has managed to prove to the city that his property should not be subject to the tax.
“They got back to me super fast, so I really appreciate that,” he said this week. “Getting back to people really quickly, who are uploading documents and all that sort of stuff, I think that will go a long way to making this, getting past this mapping road.”
Both Hedley and O’Brien were pleased with a Staten Island judge’s ruling Monday that temporarily paused the pied-à-terre rollout — thought the Mamdani administration is appealing the decision.
“Because people believe the old adage ‘you can’t fight City Hall,’ but I don’t believe that you don’t stand up when something is wrong,” O’Brien said.
