New York City may be headed toward a broad-based increase in local property taxes, one of the few tax increases that doesn’t require approval from Albany. Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently proposed a roughly 9.5% property tax hike as a contingency plan to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap if state lawmakers decline to raise income tax on high earners. While the political debate has focused on competing visions of taxation and spending, the practical reality is simple: when property taxes rise, the people who live in, own, or invest in New York real estate bear the cost. For taxpayers, this proposal is less an abstract fiscal policy and more a direct hit to household and business finances.
Whenever the Third Department tells the Tax Appeals Tribunal that it got a decision wrong, we make sure to pay attention. This time, the Third Department went to the history section of their local library to check out some bill jackets – just in case the statutory language wasn’t clear enough. The case is Gelco Corporation v. New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, and here’s the rundown.