How Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax exposed an epidemic of ‘ghost cars’ instead

It’s not an uncommon sight to see out-of-state plates in New York. For one, it is the self-described greatest city in the world, so of course people embark on road trips to see all the sights of the five boroughs. But on the other hand, plenty of those plates are New Yorkers who register their cars in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or elsewhere specifically to dodge New York’s high insurance premiums, while actually living in and driving around the Big Apple.

In New York City specifically, a Streetsblog analysis of city violation data found nearly 21,000 vehicles registered outside the tri-state area (plus Pennsylvania) that picked up at least one violation in the city in every single quarter of the year: a pattern strongly suggesting these cars are actually garaged and driven in New York full-time, with owners registering elsewhere purely to dodge the state’s high insurance rates.

The City Council’s Oversight and Investigations Division surveyed more than 3,500 parked vehicles last year across precincts chosen for high volumes of out-of-state-plate summonses. Of 768 non-New York-plated vehicles found, one in five had mismatched, temporary, or fraudulent “no-hit” plates that don’t trace back to any valid registration. Those vehicles owed nearly two-and-a-half times more in outstanding fines than properly registered cars, and paid only 16% of what they owed, versus 63% for validly plated ones.

But Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax—a surcharge for anyone who owns a second home in New York valued at over a certain limit—is effectively acting as an extra tax auditor. The question is simple: are you a New York City resident? Then present your driver’s license or income taxes. Did you happen to file out of state though you lay your head in the five boroughs? Technically, that makes you a........

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