New York judge halts second-home tax rollout over identification errors

A New York judge has ordered the city to stop collecting a new tax on secondary homes and start the process again. Judge Wayne Ozzi found that the city had not correctly identified which properties owed the tax. The city had put over 900,000 homeowners on a tax list, even though most of them did not owe anything. Around 17,000 residents received letters saying they might have to pay. The judge ordered the city to replace the list with a corrected version. The plaintiffs' lawyer said the city broke state law because it asked homeowners to prove they lived in their own homes. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the tax is aimed at wealthy people who own more than one home. Governor Kathy Hochul said the state was not responsible for the problems.