The Wall Street Journal<\/a>: \u201cMamdani\u2019s administration fired a warning shot last week when it published an online list of property owners who might be subject to the surcharge on luxury second homes. The list includes owners\u2019 names, addresses and market value of properties.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThe release of the list threatens to stir up existing tensions between the mayor and the city\u2019s elite. The city has also begun sending out notifications to homeowners that they might be subject to the new tax. \u2018If you have a second home in New York City worth more than $5M, check your mailbox when you\u2019re back in the five boroughs \u2014 because you\u2019ve got mail,\u2019\u201d the mayor said in a post on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
I assume \u2026 I have an apartment here, but I\u2019m well below that number. I don\u2019t love this. I can\u2019t say I love\u00a0this. It feels a little bit like doxing. Just tax them and get on with it is my feeling.<\/p>\n
Galloway:<\/strong> Here\u2019s the definition of doxing: Doxing is publishing private identifying information to expose someone to public pressure or harm without their consent, tied to status \u2014 the publisher\u2019s disapproval. Swap \u201celite\u201d for any other disavowed group. I\u2019m a fan of this tax. I was supportive of it. Rich absenteeism should subsidize a nurse in the Bronx paying 40 percent of her income on rent. I came out in favor of this tax. This is the definition. He\u2019s taken a legitimate source of tax revenue and he\u2019s turning it into a wanted poster. The question I would have is, other than trying to identify and imply these people have done something wrong \u2014 and then, 18 months after a health-care CEO was executed in the street, published the list \u2014 what is the upside here? Why is he doing this?<\/p>\nSwisher:<\/strong> There\u2019s two things. I think he\u2019s been largely successful, but there\u2019s two things that I think are real misses, and they\u2019re both \u2014 well, they\u2019re not related. They\u2019re all related in some way. One is this luxury tax. They should not have focused on Ken Griffin. They got it passed. Hochul agreed to do it.\u00a0Just tax people, that\u2019s it. That should be it. It got passed. The leaders are going to be mad about it. Some are; some aren\u2019t, like you. Then just tax them. This was a big mistake, to try to put targets on these people. I find it really disturbing.<\/p>\nThe second thing was, even though I agree with the problems with Benjamin Netanyahu, to say you\u2019re going to arrest him seems ridiculous because it\u2019s not your job. I get why you might say, \u201cI don\u2019t like him, and I wish I could arrest him,\u201d but it was sort of weird. I thought it was another weird flex \u2014 which is not his job.<\/p>\n
And so in this case, I think he\u2019s going to piss off the elite anyway \u2014 or many of them, not all of them \u2014 over this tax. These records are public, I think, I believe. But why call attention to them? I can look up any home if you know the address, essentially, but maybe not who\u2019s here as a second home. I don\u2019t know. That I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Galloway:<\/strong> Well, I\u2019ll just touch on him saying he would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. Basically, the justification was that he\u2019s been convicted in the International Criminal Court. There are dozens, if not hundreds of people who have been convicted in the International Criminal Court, but he\u2019s decided to announce he\u2019s arresting the Jew.<\/p>\nSwisher:<\/strong> Well, I\u2019m not sure, but okay.<\/p>\nGalloway:<\/strong> Okay. Who else has he announced he\u2019s arresting if they come to Manhattan?<\/p>\nSwisher:<\/strong> He hasn\u2019t. He shouldn\u2019t have done this. I said he shouldn\u2019t have done it.<\/p>\nGalloway:<\/strong> So you and I are in violent agreement on this. He\u2019s not only playing into the worst fears about him, but he\u2019s making it harder for all progressives. I believe in a progressive tax structure. I believe we should raise tax rates. The Republicans, in order to create deficits and continue to transfer money from the poor to the rich, they argue that progressive tax structures are persecution. This plays exactly into that entire narrative.<\/p>\nOf course, I never miss an excuse to talk about myself. I left San Francisco in 2000 because I thought I was going to be rich. RedEnvelope was going public, and I thought, What do I want to do with my life?\u00a0I thought, I want to teach, and I want to live in New York. New York is the greatest collision of\u00a0proximity, humanity, culture, creativity, weirdness. I\u2019m like, I want that, and I moved there in 2000. I ended up \u2026 I was not rich. I worked my ass off in New York, and I decided, You know what? I can\u2019t afford to live here, and I moved to Florida. But I decided, I\u2019m going to start a business-intelligence firm called L2, and I started it in New York because (a) it\u2019s an amazing place to start a business and (b) I always wanted to have a foot in New York.<\/p>\n
I started L2 in 2010. I sold it in 2017. I\u2019ve spent a bunch of time this morning trying to figure out what the taxes are \u2014 not the federal taxes, but the state franchise tax, real-estate taxes, payroll taxes paid by L2 from 2010 to present to New York City and the state. It\u2019s about $51 million. In other words, L2 is paying for what? The budget for one of the largest firehouses in downtown Manhattan is $26 million a year.<\/p>\n
But quite frankly, what he\u2019s saying is, \u201cOkay.\u201d When I sold my company in 2017, I was living in faculty housing. My dean called me and said, \u201cCongratulations. I just saw you sold it for this. You need to move out of faculty housing,\u201d which was fair. I bought an apartment.<\/p>\n
And now, when he starts putting \u2014 quite frankly, when he starts putting a target, he\u2019s implying we\u2019ve done something wrong. He\u2019s implying that we\u2019re guilty of something. They have the tax rules. They don\u2019t need this for tax reasons. As a matter of fact, if Amazon released a list of a million names and said, \u201cThese people actually owe taxes,\u201d or \u201cThey\u2019ve done something wrong,\u201d or they\u2019ve implied something bad about them, and it had a 95 percent error rate, the same attorney general under Mamdani would be issuing subpoenas right now. This plays into \u2026<\/p>\n
Swisher:<\/strong> Doxing.<\/p>\nGalloway<\/strong>: This is just plain \u2026 He\u2019s implying we\u2019ve done something wrong because we\u2019re successful. New York is the last place you want to demonize success.<\/p>\nSwisher:<\/strong> Yep. I would agree.<\/p>\nGalloway:<\/strong> 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. No one\u2019s going to get in my fucking way if I\u2019m really talented and work hard. We\u2019re going to celebrate it. We\u2019re not going to put a big R on your door and say you\u2019ve done something wrong because you\u2019re successful.<\/p>\nSwisher: <\/strong>Yeah, yeah, I don\u2019t know quite why he did it, since he got the tax. The tax was going through. He\u2019s already won, and I\u2019m not sure why he\u2019s doubling down with a losing\u00a0move. It\u2019s bizarre. I find that bizarre. In a time when people\u2019s public information \u2014 even if it\u2019s public, to call\u00a0attention to it when you\u2019re so prominent is a real problem. I mean, we all complain about Facebook and others using our information, justifiably. To do this is very similar. It feels very creepy. It feels very surveillance. It feels very \u2026
Even if you don\u2019t like Ken Griffin, even if you don\u2019t like all these rich people lording it over New York, they should pay their taxes. That\u2019s that. It should be \u201cthat\u2019s that.\u201d It seems really unusually pugnacious toward \u2026 I don\u2019t understand. I was sort of shocked by this story. I\u2019m going to wait for more reporting on this, but it seems ridiculous to call attention to it when it\u2019s people you want to also stay here and you want\u00a0to get their taxes. Anyway, I would agree with you, Scott. I don\u2019t like it. I don\u2019t like it. People can call us friends of rich people, but it seems unfair in every aspect.<\/p>\nGalloway:<\/strong> Ninety-five percent of the people on the list supposedly aren\u2019t 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 there from publishing this list?<\/p>\nSwisher:<\/strong> I\u2019d like to know. I would like to know what the idea is. It\u2019s not a good one. I mean, it\u2019s not good. It\u2019s not good.<\/p>\nThis transcript has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
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