Happy Wednesday in New York City, where your luxury second home might get hit with an additional tax.
Governor Hochul announced yesterday that she will push for a yearly tax surcharge on second residences in New York City worth $5 million or more. The proposal would generate revenue from ownership of expensive apartments that do not serve as a primary residence, a fairly common practice among those who can afford it.
These properties — known as pied-à-terre — serve as a home base for their owners’ temporary trips to the city, and are generally subject to lower taxes than other New York residences. According to The New York Times, many units in Manhattan’s newest high-rise towers are owned by foreign investors and remain vacant for most of the year.
“If you can afford a multi-million dollar second home in New York City, you can afford to join its residents in supporting the greatest city in the world,” Hochul wrote on X last night.
The announcement immediately drew praise from lawmakers and advocates on the governor’s left flank who have been pushing her to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers. Most prominent among them was Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who previously threatened to raise property taxes on New Yorkers if the governor did not pursue a tax hike for millionaires.
“Thanks to the support of Governor Hochul, we are one step closer to balancing our budget by taxing the ultra-wealthy and global elites with a pied-à-terre tax — the first of its kind in our state,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Hochul said that she expects to raise $500 million from the new tax surcharge — money that would help alleviate the pressure of the city’s $5.4 billion budget deficit.
This latest move, a reversal for Hochul, is perhaps a small capitulation to the growing Tax the Rich movement that’s drawn thousands of protestors from around the state to Albany and won some advocates in very high places, including the mayor’s office. Recent polls found that a majority of New Yorkers support a 2% tax increase on households making more than $1 million a year.
It remains to be seen whether the proposal will win the support of the state Legislature and make it into this year’s budget, which is now two weeks late. But it may be time to downsize your city apartment to something more modest.
Perhaps something in the $4-$4.9 million range?
NJ Transit plans to charge more than $100 for round-trip train tickets from New York’s Pennsylvania Station to MetLife Stadium during the FIFA World Cup games, with no discounts. The usual fee is $12.90.
Matthew Rodriguez, 18, the accused moped driver in the April 1 drive-by killing of 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore in East Williamsburg, pleaded not guilty to murder and related charges at his arraignment yesterday.
A comment on Thursday by Brooklyn Councilmember Chi Ossé — about the price of rotisserie chicken at the new Greenpoint wine bar Gigi’s — set off “a firestorm” on social media.
The City Health Department on Tuesday kicked off Sexually Transmitted Infection Awareness Week by renewing a five-year partnership with ONE Condoms, which will provide free condoms to city residents through 2031.
A new $9.25 million capital investment from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso will help build dozens of new sensory rooms in 18 special-ed schools across Brooklyn.
Our World In Photos
Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP
ST. PETERSBURG — Finally, a human who appreciates the ubiquitous bird: An elderly man kisses a pigeon while feeding other pigeons in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, April 15, 2026.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
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AI can design and run thousands of lab experiments without human hands. Humanity isn’t ready for the new risks this brings to biology
An image created using the software DALL-E 2 with the prompt, “artificial intelligence.” Photo courtesy of Daniel Cody.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly learning to autonomously design and run biological experiments, but the systems intended to govern those capabilities are struggling to keep pace.
The new process looks less like traditional benchwork in a lab and more like engineering: design, build, test, learn and repeat. Where a traditional experiment might test a single hypothesis, AI-driven programmable biology explores thousands of design variations in parallel, iterating the way an engineer refines a prototype.
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The Mini
Our solver finished in 34 seconds. Can you beat it?
Cartoon Sketchbook
By Steve Sack
For the Road
Menu Shakeup: Cafe Mars, the Gowanus restaurant known for its inventive Italian cooking, will convert its space into an Italian izakaya throughout May. The monthlong concept centers on Itameshi cuisine, which fuses Japanese technique with Italian ingredients. Learn more.
Happy Birthday to Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson!
On This Day in 1963, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Mets themselves have crept in the heart of the populace by setting an all-time losing season of 120 games.”
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