The Mamdani-Hochul pied--terre tax is based on a fatal flaw

The unfolding court drama over New York City’s pied-à-terre tax isn’t just about billionaires.It’s about fundamental rights of all Americans.New York’s Democratic Party is trashing those rights and violating the legal principles that underpin America’s successful economy in order to finance their socialist spending spree. Between elections, we must go to court in defense of these rights and fight hard. On Tuesday, New York State Supreme Court Judge Wayne Ozzi ruled that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rollout of the pied-à-terre tax deprived homeowners of their due process rights.The city had notified some 17,000 house- and apartment-owners that they owed the tax and had a mere 30 days to prove otherwise — or be hit with hefty penalties.It was flipping the burden of proof onto homeowners to show their property is their primary residence and exempt from the tax.

Yikes! Guilty until proven innocent.Ozzi ordered the city to redo the rollout, this time honoring property owners’ due-process rights.But City Hall is standing pat, vowing to appeal rather than clean up its act. A Mamdani spokesman huffed, “The ultra-wealthy are fighting in court to avoid paying their fair share.

They have filed lawsuit after lawsuit to protect their privilege, and we will not back down.”’“Privilege” is the wrong word; “rights” is the correct one, and they belong to all of us.This week, former US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and casino magnate Steve Wynn sued, challenging the tax itself, not just the rollout, and a group of real-estate owners filed an almost identical suit.(Full disclosure: I was married to Ross from 1995 to 1998.)Both suits argue the tax violates both the US and New York constitutions and must be struck down entirely.On the merits, these suits aren’t slam dunks, but pretty close.Yet Gov.

Kathy Hochul’s spokesperson sneers, “When Steve Wynn and Wilbur Ross try to cast themselves as sympathetic figures in a fight over paying their fair s...