Galloway: 'He's Implying We've Done Something Wrong'

Scott Galloway teaches at NYU but is probably best known outside that for his books and podcasts, including one he co-hosts with Kara Swisher called Pivot. Galloway's politics are basically on the Left though he considers himself a moderate and not a socialist. In fact, he's an entrepreneur who got rich selling a company he started for more than $150 million.

On his most recent podcast, Galloway pointed out that he wound up on Mayor Mamdani's list of people who might need to pay his new pied-à-terre tax. Galloway was not happy about being included on the list and said Mamdani was essentially doxing people like himself.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani opened a new front in his ongoing battle with New York City's wealthy after his administration published a searchable database identifying affluent property owners who could be subject to the city's proposed pied-à-terre tax, a move critics say could expose them to harassment and public safety risks.

The database, released by the city's Department of Finance, allows users to search properties and view the names and addresses of owners whose non-primary residences could be subject to the proposed tax. A spokesperson for the department said publication of the property roll was required by state law...

"I’ve been doxed," the liberal professor announced on the podcast. "I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Mayor Mamdani has decided to release a list of the 950,000 residences with addresses and names that might be eligible for his pied-à-terre tax."...

Galloway proceeded to read out the definition of doxing as "’publishing private identifying information to expose someone to public pressure or harm without their consent,’" and said that while he is a fan of the tax, he is not a fan of how the list has become a "wanted poster" for property owners.

"He’s taken a legitimate source of tax revenue, and he’s turning it into a wanted poster," he said of Mamdani’s tax list. "The question I would have is, other than trying to identify and imply these people have done something wrong — and then, 18 months after a healthcare CEO was executed in the street, published the list — what is the upside here? Why is he doing this?"

That's how the discussion of Galloway's inclusion on the list began, but the hosts came back to the topic a moment later. This is where Galloway repeatedly said that Mamdani wasn't just posting a list of taxpayer data, he was implying they'd done something wrong by being successful. In fact he mentions that point at least four times over a few minutes.

Galloway: And now when he starts putting quite frankly he when he starts putting a target implying he's implying we've done something wrong. He's implying that we're guilty of something.

Swisher: Yeah. He should just he should just take the tax. I would agree.

Galloway: They have the tax roles. They don't need this for tax reasons. As a matter of fact, if Amazon released a list of a million names and said these people actually owe taxes or they've done something wrong or they're implied something bad about them and it had a 95% error rate, the same attorney general under Mamdani would be issuing subpoenas right now.

Swisher: It's doxing.

Galloway: He's implying we've done something wrong because we're successful?...New York is the New York is the the last place you want to demonize success. The reason people move to New York is they think, "I want to be successful on Broadway. I want to be successful in business. I want to be successful in the arts. And no one's going to get in my f***ing way if I'm really talented and work hard. We're going to celebrate it. We're not going to we're not going to put a big R on your door and say you've done something wrong because you're successful."

[...]

Swisher: I'm going to wait for more reporting on this but it seems ridiculous to to to call attention to it um when it's people you want to also stay here and you want to get their taxes. Anyway, I I would agree with you Scott. I just I I don't like it. I don't like it...

Galloway: 95% of the people on the list Bill's not going to be subject to the tax...Other than implying these people have done something wrong and publishing their address without their permission, without their consent, what possible upside is is there from publishing this list?

I'm glad Galloway came out against this but it would be easier to just note that all DSA-related politicians are demagogues who attack the rich for their own benefit. In any case, Galloway isn't the only person complaining about Mamdani's list. Alex Berenson just wrote an article noting that his 81-year-old mother was on the list even though she lives in New York City full time.

She had received a letter from New York City demanding $55,048 in property taxes on the townhouse in Midtown Manhattan where she has lived since 1996. It was weird, she said, because she didn’t owe $55,048 in property taxes. She asked if I could help her figure out the letter.

The answer turned out to be the city’s new “pied-à-terre” tax, the latest make-good on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise to “tax the rich.” Approved by the New York State Legislature in May, the levy is an extra annual property tax of 0.8 percent to 6.5 percent on high-end apartments and townhouses owned by people whose primary residence is not in New York City.

Except, in its rush to get the loot, the New York City Department of Finance didn’t bother to figure out which properties are really subject to the tax—and which are owned by full-time New Yorkers like my mom, who owns no other properties and now has until August 21 to prove residency or face that $55,048 tax bill. A cursory online search would have revealed the truth, but the city’s bagmen didn’t bother. To add insult to injury, the letter was actually addressed to my father, who died six years ago, in May 2020—in the third-floor bedroom he shared with my mother in the same townhouse.

Ultimately, Berenson is confident this mess will be straightened out, but no thanks to the Mamdani administration which is more interested in stoking class resentment than anything else.

Of course, Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax isn’t just about pied-à-terres, or even the billionaires who own them. It’s about stoking resentment toward an ever-expanding list of class enemies. As it turns out, “tax the rich” has no fixed definition of rich, and the line only moves in one direction.

The blowback on this has been so bad that Mamdani was forced to extend the deadline.

Residents across the five boroughs who feel their homes are being unfairly targeted by the mayor’s new tax on secondary residences previously had until Aug. 21 to file appeals. They now have until Sept. 18 to prove that they live in those places full-time, according to Mamdani and Department of Finance Commissioner Richard Lee...

The pied-à-terre tax rollout has been wrought with confusion and frustration. In late July, the Department of Finance posted a database of more than 900,000 properties that “may” be subject to the new surcharge — causing some to believe their homes were mistakenly subject to the tax. A City Hall official clarified Wednesday the city had sent out letters to only 17,000 addresses it suspects are second homes worth more than $5 million.

He posted a list of 900,000 people, implying they'd all done something wrong, but only sent letters to 17,000 of them. That's less than 2 percent. Put another way, 98 percent of the people on the list got doxed for no reason other than Mamdani's desire to demonize them.

Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.

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