Serious safety fears as NYC's socialist Mayor publishes hit list of homeowners to smash with new tax

Zohran Mamdani, New York City's socialist Mayor, has sparked safety fears for homeowners after publishing a list of properties he wants to hit with a new tax.

The pied-a-terre tax on second homes came into effect on July 1 after being passed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

The hit list includes the full name and address of every property owner - effectively leaking thousands of landlord's details to the public.

The move has already been criticised by the state's Republicans - including by Council Minority Leader David Carr, whose property is included on the list.

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He told the New York Post: "It’s a reckless and foolish move, especially considering there are potentially thousands of properties on this list that do not qualify as second homes or whose owners will successfully dispute their inclusion."

Mr Carr accused New York City's first Muslim mayor of "tanking the luxury home market", warning that high-end estate agents would simply up and go to Florida and Texas.

Mr Mamdani sent out notices to thousands of property owners in New York City just four days ago.

"The best city in the world deserves the best parks, libraries, and schools in the world. That's only possible when we all pay our fair share," he said on social media.

City Hall has estimated the tax would scrape $500million (£376million) from homeowners every year for the city's budget.

Democrat city Comptroller Mark Levine's office said the real figure would be closer to $340 to $380million (£285million), and was likely to decrease over the years.

When introducing the levy, New York officials said it would apply to an estimated 11,000 to 30,000 properties.

But the list published by the city contains over 950,000 residences across two spreadsheets.

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Steven Fulop, the president and CEO of the Partnership for NYC, a nonprofit business advocacy group, said publishing the list was a "mistake, and a dangerous precedent".

He said: "Publishing names and addresses singles out people who have done nothing wrong, at a moment when the far-left already treats success itself as something to be punished.

"Most of the people on that list aren’t billionaires by any stretch - they’re people that believed in NYC, worked hard and bought a second home. All this does is make people feel less safe in their own city, and less welcome in it."

The list contains the names and addresses of several high profile New Yorkers, including director Woody Allen and Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

Also included on the list were several properties in a small outdoor mall which are not even residential properties to begin with.

Mr Mamdani had threatened a 9.5 per cent city-wide property tax unless Governor Hochul passed his second homes raid.

As he announced the tax, he stood outside Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's $238million (£179million) penthouse, describing it as an example of a "fundamentally unfair system".

Mr Griffin said the video was "creepy and weird" and threatened to invest in Miami rather than New York City in the future.

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