史塔滕岛一名法官站在起诉市政府征收该税的一群房主一边，这给市长佐赫兰·马姆达尼（Zohran Mamdani）沉重打击。
A Staten Island judge sided with a group of homeowners who had sued the city over its introduction of the tax, dealing a blow to Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
周二，史塔滕岛州最高法院法官韦恩·M·奥齐（Wayne M. Ozzi）对市长佐赫兰·马姆达尼提高富人税收的努力造成了重大挫折，称市政府对高端第二套住房征税的推出过程处理不当，必须重新开始。
A Staten Island judge on Tuesday dealt a major setback to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to raise taxes on the wealthy, saying that the city had mishandled the rollout of a tax on high-end second homes and must start over.
法官站在起诉市政府的一群房主一边。房主们认为，马姆达尼政府在开始征税之前，没有尽足够努力去确定谁应该缴纳该税。
The judge, Wayne M. Ozzi of State Supreme Court on Staten Island, sided with a group of homeowners who had sued the city. The homeowners had argued that the Mamdani administration did not try hard enough to determine who should owe the tax before moving toward collecting it.
奥齐法官写道：“由于市政府‘实施税法的方针’，房主们正在遭受实质性的损害，并受到不必要的惩罚。”
“Homeowners are being substantially harmed and penalized needlessly” by the city’s “method of implementing the tax law,” Justice Ozzi wrote.
该诉讼并未对第二套住房税（也被称为“落脚地”税）的合法性提出异议。该税由州长凯西·霍楚尔（Kathy Hochul）于春季公布并得到市长支持，在选民中很受欢迎，并被马姆达尼的支持者誉为兑现其“向富人征税”承诺的一种方式。预计该税每年将筹集约5亿美元来资助城市服务，从而填补预算缺口。
The lawsuit did not challenge the legality of the tax on second homes, also known as pieds-à-terre. Unveiled by Gov. Kathy Hochul in the spring and backed by the mayor, the tax was popular among voters and hailed by Mr. Mamdani’s supporters as a way to make good on his pledge to “tax the rich.”It was expected to close a budget gap by raising some $500 million annually to fund city services.
但在短时间内仓促推出该政策引发了市长反对者以及包括霍楚尔女士在内的部分盟友的立即批评。
But the bumpy rollout of the policy on a short timeline drew immediate criticism from the mayor’s opponents, and some allies, including Ms. Hochul.
房主的律师、曾批评市长的市政府前官员兰迪·马斯特罗（Randy Mastro）表示：“市政厅搞砸了这次推广，本该承认错误并自行修正，而不是在法庭上对抗，浪费时间和纳税人的钱。”
“City Hall botched this rollout and should have just admitted the errors and fixed its own mistake, instead of wasting time and taxpayer dollars by fighting it in court,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer for the homeowners and a former city official who has criticized the mayor.