New York City’s tax on second homes, which went into effect on July 1st, has sparked an uproar from billionaires and residents alike. While the city is still working through which properties will get hit, it released an enormous list on Monday including hundreds of thousands of addresses and owner’s names.

The bad blood has been brewing since April, when Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled his plans for the tax by filming a video outside the $240 million penthouse of hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin. “When I ran for mayor, I said we were going to tax the rich,” Mamdani said, leaning into the camera. “Well, today we’re taxing the rich.”

Griffin’s response was equally bombastic, calling the video “creepy” and “frightening.” At the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in May, he added that “Mamdani's making it really clear, New York doesn't welcome success.”

Griffin even threatened to pull his firm Citadel’s plans for a $6 billion office tower in Manhattan and instead relocate more employees to Miami, where he moved his firm from Chicago in 2022. His partner on the project, former billionaire and real estate mogul Steven Roth, went as far as calling the slogan “tax the rich” when “spit out with anger and contempt by politicians…just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs.”

Known as the pied-à-terre tax, it’s set to target homes that aren’t primary residences. That covers both the New York City properties of people who live outside of the city, as well as any additional homes owned by people who do live in the five boroughs. Currently authorized through 2031, it initially targets homes valued at more than $5 million plus condos and co-op units valued at $1 million or more. If the property is leased to a tenant, or it’s the primary residence........

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