New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s focus on affordability injects fresh urgency into long-sought property tax reforms, Finance Commissioner Preston Niblack said Tuesday.
Mamdani, a state assemblymember and Democratic nominee, has thrust into the spotlight the plight of renters who are indirectly hit by rising building operating costs, Niblack said in an interview at the city Department of Finance’s annual TaxRAPP event for tax professionals.
“There’s more awareness of the cost of property taxes on rental buildings,” Niblack said. “I think there’s a desire to use that because we can manipulate those more than we can the cost of utilities or something as one leverage point to try and address the affordability issue.”
Niblack, appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in 2021, pledged to work with Mamdani on property tax reform if he stays in city government in a Mamdani administration. A spokesperson said later Niblack hasn’t had any direct conversations yet with the candidate, who has been making the rounds with the city’s business and cultural leaders.
The Mamdani campaign didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
“We’ve done obviously a tremendous amount of thinking about it during this administration, and we’ll be happy to share all of our thoughts and analysis with the incoming administration,” Niblack said.
New York’s 40-year-old property tax law has long faced criticism for favoring single-family homes and luxury condo units as valuations soar to new heights. That leaves rental buildings and low- and moderate-income condos and co-ops with a higher tax burden, critics say.
Niblack backed property tax reform legislation in the state legislature at last year’s tax conference, drawing on recommendations in a 2021 report by the city Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform. But those efforts were drowned out by other budget priorities, he said Tuesday.
“Albany is its own creature,” he said. “We had hoped to introduce a bill in the last session. The budget dragged on. They didn’t feel like they wanted to tackle the big topic last year.”
Another factor putting pressure on state and local leaders to act: a long-running lawsuit filed by Tax Equity Now New York that claims the system discriminates against minority residents.
The group—which represents homeowners, renters, and businesses—argues the city can make improvements on its own to the percentage of a property’s market value that is subject to tax. But Niblack reiterated his position that state action is the best way to address longstanding issues with the property tax system.
“We continue to believe that there is a need for legislative changes, not just changes that we could make as the administration,” he said.
Niblack, in remarks to practitioners, said the system’s “inequities and inconsistencies are well-known” but that a “durable” solution relies on statutory changes.
He noted the city has expanded payment plan eligibility and taken other actions to aid struggling homeowners before the city auctions off the property taxes to investors through a tax lien sale.
Local Law 82, passed in 2024, was the first reform to the city’s tax lien sale process since it was established in 1996, he said.
The city is working to “finally recognize the distinction between people who won’t pay and people who can’t pay,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story: