Mamdani freezes tax lien sales amid review

(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is freezing tax lien sales as the city conducts a review of claims that the process exposes homeowners to “predatory” debt collectors.

Mamdani’s preliminary $127 billion budget plan calls for suspending the city’s annual sale of unpaid tax liens and water debt to a private investor-backed trust this year will conduct a six-month review looking into the system, which has been criticized for disproportion and harm to low-income and minority neighborhoods.

“Our current property tax lien sale process to collect overdue taxes and fees is broken — allowing predatory debt collectors to profit off the backs of working and middle-class homeowners, driving New Yorkers out of their homes,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement.

The mayor’s budget projects that halting sales will cut near-term revenue by about $80 million, according to the Mamdani administration. The six-month review will focus, in part, on finding ways to offset the loss to the city’s tax coffers from elimina...