TRANSKRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.150 --> 00:00:03.850
Sunday morning. With us today is Randy Mastro. And one
2
00:00:03.970 --> 00:00:06.790
of the, well, one of the premier attorneys in New
3
00:00:06.809 --> 00:00:10.910
York City, a former first deputy mayor. And he knows
4
00:00:10.949 --> 00:00:14.750
where all the bodies are buried. Well, Randy Mastro, I mean,
5
00:00:15.029 --> 00:00:20.929
you're defending the landlords. You're defending the people that they're
6
00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:23.739
trying to, I guess, I would say the word rip
7
00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:27.760
off on Pierre, the tear taxes. Where do we start
8
00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:29.219
on a Sunday morning?
9
00:00:31.269 --> 00:00:38.659
Well, John, we are now challenging the constitutionality of that
10
00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:43.179
pied-a-terre tax, trying to get rid of it altogether. We
11
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:47.719
won a case that the Mondani administration had botched the
12
00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:51.420
rollout and had to do a do-over. That case is
13
00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:57.240
on appeal. Now we are challenging the legality, the constitutionality
14
00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:00.439
of that pied-a-terre tax. because it violates the federal and
15
00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:03.509
state constitutions. That case was brought out in Suffolk County,
16
00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:07.090
and it's going to proceed on an expedited schedule. So
17
00:01:07.170 --> 00:01:09.670
by December, we should be in a position to get
18
00:01:09.709 --> 00:01:14.659
a ruling whether or not that pied-à-terre tax is wiped
19
00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:16.920
out as unconstitutional and illegal.
20
00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:25.340
I understand that. And does this go under state law
21
00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:27.870
or federal law? Both.
22
00:01:28.989 --> 00:01:34.189
Under the federal constitution, the governor, state legislators, the mayor
23
00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:36.950
admitted at the time this was passed that they were
24
00:01:37.010 --> 00:01:43.890
doing this to target out-of-state billionaires who had second homes
25
00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:48.010
in New York City. And that is blatantly illegal under
26
00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:53.670
the federal constitution, both the Privileges and Immunities Clause, which
27
00:01:53.769 --> 00:02:02.890
makes it unconstitutional to discriminate against out-of-staters, and the Dormant
28
00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:11.150
Commerce Clause, which bars states from interfering with interstate commerce. Also,
29
00:02:11.250 --> 00:02:15.330
under the state constitution, because, John, they called this a surcharge,
30
00:02:15.889 --> 00:02:18.810
even though a tax by any other name would cost
31
00:02:18.849 --> 00:02:22.879
people as much. Obviously, a tax on top of your
32
00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:27.439
real estate taxes. But they did that to try and
33
00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:32.639
get around Article 8 of the state constitution, which places
34
00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:37.240
a cap on how much of revenue can be raised
35
00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:41.430
through real estate taxes. So they attempted to exempt this
36
00:02:41.530 --> 00:02:49.110
pied-a-terre tax from that cap. It's obviously a tax. So
37
00:02:49.129 --> 00:02:54.389
that makes this tax illegal because it was exempted. improperly
38
00:02:54.830 --> 00:03:00.189
from the cap on real estate taxes. So for under
39
00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:04.000
either the federal or the state constitutions, we believe this
40
00:03:04.009 --> 00:03:06.819
is going to be found to be unconstitutional and illegal,
41
00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:12.319
and the periodical tax will be voided in its entirety.
42
00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:18.050
Wow. Well, that's certainly, you know, because... Right now, New
43
00:03:18.069 --> 00:03:21.280
York City's at a standstill. People don't know that they
44
00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:25.319
should buy or they should sell or just do, you know,
45
00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:29.240
or wind their watch. I mean... Well, that's.
46
00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:32.699
One of the great ironies here, John, right? This tax
47
00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:37.909
supposedly raising more revenue is having an adverse effect on
48
00:03:37.969 --> 00:03:41.129
property values and the ability to resell and who you
49
00:03:41.169 --> 00:03:43.750
can sell to and who you can't sell to and
50
00:03:43.770 --> 00:03:49.110
depressing property values. In the long term... A gimmick like
51
00:03:49.189 --> 00:03:56.289
this is going to cost the city money. But hopefully, John,
52
00:03:56.870 --> 00:04:01.219
just like the case against the botched rollout, which we
53
00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:07.139
won already, the courts will also find the pied-à-terre tax
54
00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:11.469
itself to be unconstitutional and therefore void it altogether.
55
00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:16.050
How about the other lawsuit that you have where you're
56
00:04:16.129 --> 00:04:22.550
fighting the fact that they're freezing the rents and expenses
57
00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:26.600
are going up and some of the people that own
58
00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:28.199
buildings could go out of business?
59
00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:33.319
John, another crazy thing that the Mondani administration has done.
60
00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:38.889
For the first time in city history, It put some
61
00:04:38.970 --> 00:04:41.949
on the scale with what's supposed to be an independent board,
62
00:04:41.970 --> 00:04:45.750
the Rent Guidelines Board, to have them produce a result,
63
00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:53.360
unprecedented in its 60-year history, a zero-zero across-the-board rent freeze.
64
00:04:53.899 --> 00:04:57.959
And it did this in a year where landlords' costs
65
00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.079
are going through the roof, higher than the rate of inflation,
66
00:05:01.540 --> 00:05:05.769
where their income is down. where their net operating income
67
00:05:06.769 --> 00:05:10.269
is less than it was last year. And last year,
Load full transcript
John,
68
00:05:10.649 --> 00:05:18.720
that rent guidelines board increased landlords' rents, allowed them to
69
00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:20.100
charge up to 3% more for one-year lease, 4.5% more
70
00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:27.430
for two-year leases. And John, Their costs were going up
71
00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:33.389
roughly the same. Their net operating income was higher last year,
72
00:05:33.930 --> 00:05:39.500
yet they were allowed to raise rents. What's different this
73
00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:45.959
year than last year? That Mondani packed the board with acolytes, supermajority,
74
00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:48.759
six of the nine members, and put thumb on the
75
00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:52.220
scale throughout the process for them to deliver rents. a
76
00:05:52.279 --> 00:05:55.839
preordained outcome. It was a sham process. The data doesn't
77
00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:59.990
support it. The statutory mandate of what factors that board
78
00:06:00.009 --> 00:06:04.089
was supposed to consider, it simply ignored them, considering only,
79
00:06:04.110 --> 00:06:08.389
you know, tenant affordability. That's not the way this process
80
00:06:08.410 --> 00:06:10.500
was supposed to work. It was supposed to be balanced
81
00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:11.879
decisions based on data.
82
00:06:12.379 --> 00:06:14.579
Now, this is a state case, so it goes up
83
00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:16.860
as high as the Court of Appeals, if necessary. Is
84
00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:19.610
that correct? Yes.
85
00:06:19.870 --> 00:06:23.490
Yes, John. We are in Manhattan State Supreme Court. We
86
00:06:23.550 --> 00:06:29.389
expect a ruling imminently. The judge did something special in
87
00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.939
this case. He ordered the city to have to produce
88
00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:37.939
documents of communications between City Hall and the Rent Guidelines Board,
89
00:06:38.379 --> 00:06:41.740
supposedly independent Rent Guidelines Board. John, there were nearly a
90
00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:46.839
thousand communications between City Hall and and the supposedly independent
91
00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:49.819
Rent Guidelines Board, after the city stood up in court
92
00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:53.339
and represented that they thought there would be virtually nothing.
93
00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:59.339
And those documents were a revelation. Now the city is
94
00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.120
trying to cut off that discovery. And when I say
95
00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:09.129
a revelation, John, the 40-page explanatory statement, that's the decision
96
00:07:09.170 --> 00:07:13.189
document that supposedly explains the rationale of the Rent Guidelines
97
00:07:13.230 --> 00:07:17.670
Board for its unprecedented... across-the-board rent freeze for the first
98
00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:20.990
time in city history, that 40-page document was delivered to
99
00:07:21.050 --> 00:07:25.850
City Hall to review before the public comment period had
100
00:07:25.910 --> 00:07:30.740
even expired and nine days before the board even voted.
101
00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:33.220
That is shocking.
102
00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:38.220
Randy Mastro, please keep fighting for all New Yorkers. Thank
103
00:07:38.259 --> 00:07:40.600
you so much for coming on this Sunday morning, and
104
00:07:40.740 --> 00:07:42.279
God bless you and God bless America.
105
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:45.089
My pleasure, John. Thank you for having me. Thank you.