Hochul tries to distance herself from Mamdanis bungled rollout of her pied--terre tax and it could haunt her: insiders

The pied-à-turmoil is just getting started.Gov.Kathy Hochul is trying to distance herself from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s bungled pied-à-terre rollout, but the new tax could cause her headaches for years to come, insiders said Tuesday.A Staten Island judge’s stunning decision Monday to order a pause on Mamdani’s rollout put a spotlight on an issue causing tensions between Hochul’s camp and City Hall since the tax on luxury second homes arose in state budget talks this spring.The tax’s troubles are the last thing Hochul, a Democrat, wants as she seeks re-election this fall against Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, said a business community source involved in the negotiations.“She can’t be running on ‘tax and spend Kathy,'” the industry source said.The democratic socialist Mamdani’s calls to “tax the rich” during last year’s mayoral campaign pushed Hochul into what she called the role of “therapist-in-chief” for the city’s uneasy well-to-do.A blustery Hochul — before she even hitched her political wagon to Mamdani by endorsing him — declared: “I’ve spoken to hundreds of business leaders saying, ‘Listen, nothing is going to happen to this city without me being aware of it and involved in it.’”But the supposed hands-on governor changed her tune as problems mounted with the pied-à-terre plan — a levy she and state lawmakers approved in May, fulfilling Mamdani and his fellow Democratic Socialists of America members’ calls for her to “tax the rich.”Hochul this week first flatly said the state wasn’t responsible for the actual rollout of the new tax, then her spokeswoman Jennifer Goodman further distanced the governor from it following the judge’s ruling.“While this lawsuit about the administration of the tax is a matter for the city and the courts to work through, the governor continues to believe that people who can afford a multimillion-dollar second home in New York City can afford to pay their fair share,�...