NYC’s pied-à-terre tax debate: Wealthy oppose levy while advocates push for billionaire taxes

In New York, lawmakers are considering a pied-à-terre tax on second homes worth $5 million or more. The proposed levy is part of a growing wave of legislation aimed at taxing the wealthy to address economic inequality.

But some affluent individuals are pushing back. On an earnings call this week, Steven Roth, chief executive of Vornado Realty Trust, likened the rhetoric around taxing the rich to hate speech. Roth specifically referenced a recent public exchange between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel.

Mamdani filmed a video outside Griffin’s multimillion-dollar penthouse, declaring, “I would tax the rich.” The building was developed by Vornado, as noted by the New York Times.

“I must say that I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ . . . when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs, and even the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said on the call.

Roth argued that the wealthy, whom he described as having started with nothing, embody the American dream and should be praised rather than targeted. “They are at the top of the great American economic pyramid for a reason,” he continued. “They should be praised and thanked.”

Public opinion vs. billionaire sentiment

A 2025 Harris poll found that a majority of Americans believe billionaires “make it harder” for them to achieve their own American dreams.

Wealthy advocates push for higher taxes

Not all wealthy individuals agree with Roth’s stance. Erica Payne, president and founder of Patriotic Millionaires, embraces the phrase “tax the rich”—so much so that it’s the title of her 2021 book.

“We believe that wealthy people like our members should be taxed for a number of reasons,” Payne tells Fast Company.

Patriotic Millionaires is an organization of high-net-worth individuals advocating for progressive taxation to close the wealth gap. Payne cited two key reasons for higher taxes on the rich:

• Since 1975, approximately $80 trillion has been transferred from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
• “The wealth concentration at the level it has reached is an existential threat to democracy,” she says, adding that economic inequality is a greater threat to democracy than military coups.

“Anyone who doesn’t understand that, including people who possess that level of wealth, should be seen as acting in opposition to our agreed upon system of self governance,” Payne says.

She also argued that current tax policies disproportionately burden the poor: “Because currently we’re taxing the poor,” she adds, “and that doesn’t seem to be working out particularly well for us.”

After the 2017 Republican tax law changes, billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than the rest of Americans.

Payne criticized Roth’s comments this week, calling them a sign of insecurity—and a