New reporting reveals Adams quietly drafted a property tax bill that Albany would not sponsor
NYC Property Tax Reform Has Defeated Every Mayor Who Tried It
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged to take on one of the most politically treacherous problems in New York: the city’s property tax system, which has been widely condemned as regressive and inequitable since it was enshrined in state law in 1981. But new reporting from New York Focus, republished by Governing magazine, reveals that his predecessor Eric Adams made a quiet attempt at reform last year that died without a single state legislator willing to sponsor the resulting bill. That failure is a cautionary signal for Mamdani as he prepares his own proposal.
How the System Punishes Lower-Income Neighborhoods
New York City’s property tax structure taxes lower-income neighborhoods at higher effective rates than wealthy ones. It also taxes large apartment buildings — where renters tend to live — at higher rates than expensive co-ops and condominiums. Research from the Community Service Society found that a 43-unit rent-stabilized building in West Harlem pays taxes at a rate more than five times higher relative to its value than a multi-million dollar single-family home next door. Luxury condos and co-ops benefit from a state law requiring them to be valued as if they were rentals, which includes rent-stabilized units, artificially deflating their assessed values and shifting tax burdens onto renters through higher rents. These inequities have been documented in detail by multiple mayoral commissions dating back to Mayor David Dinkins.
What Adams Proposed and Why It Stalled
The Adams administration drafted a bill that would have gradually raised annual assessment caps for one-to-three-family homes from 6 percent per year to 8 percent per year and from 20 percent over five years to 35 percent over five years. This would have reduced taxes for approximately 275,000 households by a median of roughly $960 per year while raising taxes for about 168,000 households by a median of about $711. Tax bills would have risen in Manhattan, parts of central Brooklyn, and Riverdale, while decreasing in the east Bronx, eastern Queens, and southern Brooklyn. Despite these redistributive goals, no Albany lawmaker was willing to introduce the bill, reportedly because the inevitable tax increases on some homeowners — even wealthy ones in gentrified neighborhoods — created too much political risk.
Why Mamdani’s Approach Will Be More Ambitious and More Difficult
Mamdani has signaled he wants to go further. His budget director, Sherif Soliman, has publicly stated the administration’s plan will be modeled on recommendations from a 2021 commission convened under Mayor Bill de Blasio, which called for fully eliminating the assessment caps. That is more aggressive than what Adams attempted. Mamdani also wants to lower property taxes on rental buildings as part of his proposed rent freeze on stabilized units, a connection that makes any property tax reform package even more politically complex.
The Lawsuit That Could Force Action
Beyond the political calculations, a pending court case may inject urgency into the process. A coalition called Tax Equity Now New York brought a lawsuit that was revived by a 2024 court ruling and is still awaiting a decision. The Adams administration had hoped that even introducing legislation in Albany might protect the city from an unfavorable ruling. Mamdani has not yet indicated whether his lawyers will shift the city’s legal posture in the case. Martha Stark, former city finance commissioner and policy director for Tax Equity Now, has said the city could address some disparities administratively, without Albany, by changing how condos and co-ops are assessed. As a candidate, Mamdani criticized Adams for fighting the lawsuit in court. The mayor’s office told New York Focus that Mamdani believes the current system is fundamentally broken and deeply inequitable. The Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscally conservative watchdog, called the Adams plan a limited proposal that failed to address the most egregious inequities. Whether Mamdani can succeed where every mayor since Dinkins has fallen short will depend on whether he can build the Albany coalitions that have always blocked these reforms.
