Mamdani got to tax empty apartments

I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.

So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.

In this issue:

• Mamdani got Hochul to tax billionaires' empty apartments

• A congresswoman listed $30 million. Then it was $95,000.

• Americans are paying record beef prices and buying more anyway

- Ledger Lowdown Team

WTF of the Day🤯

Mamdani to Tax Billionaires' Empty Apartments. Finally.

New York City has a $5.4 billion budget gap and Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been pushing to tax wealthy New Yorkers hard to fix it. Governor Hochul has been worried that income tax hikes will just push rich people out of the state. This week they found middle ground. Hochul proposed an annual surcharge on second homes worth more than $5 million. About 13,000 properties would qualify. Mamdani called it good news and called out Ken Griffin's $238 million penthouse purchase on Central Park South, pointing out that rich people buy these places and leave them empty while New Yorkers pay for the city they benefit from.

The politics are pretty clean. Second homeowners probably are not registered to vote in New York so Hochul is taxing the rich with basically zero political downside.

Progressives say $500 million is fine but not enough. Mamdani is clearly happy because this is a step toward the wealth taxes he has been pushing for. The real test is whether the people this affects actually leave or pay up.

What’s poppin in accounting🍿

Congress woman Says She Isn’t a Multimillionaire, Blames Accounting Error

Here is what happened. Ilhan Omar filed a financial disclosure with Congress saying she and her husband had between $6 million and $30 million in assets. Then she amended it and the number dropped to just $18,000 to $95,000. Same people. Same businesses. A completely different number.

Her excuse was that she trusted her husband's accountant to fill out the forms and she did not check them closely enough. The accountant apparently listed a venture capital firm and a winery as worth millions when they were actually worth nothing once you subtracted what they owed.

Congress is now asking questions. Republicans are using it to go after her. Her side says it was a simple error, not anything illegal, and that amended filings happen all the time in Congress because members rely on accountants to do the math.

So what do you think? Accident or something else?

Source: WSJ

Weekly Trend Chart 📊

American Citizens Vastly Outnumber US Cattle

Ground beef hit $6.86 a pound in March, just shy of the all-time high from February, and up 48% over the last five years.

So why is beef more expensive and scarcer while Americans keep buying more of it? A few reasons. Drought pushed farmers to shrink herds. Fertilizer and equipment costs went up. Big meat processors consolidated. And Americans just decided they want more protein no matter what it costs.

Last year people spent $45 billion on beef, up 12% from the year before, but the actual amount they bought only went up 4%. Which means they are paying more per pound and not caring. Call it protein or whatever, but the numbers say Americans are not trading beef for chicken.

Meme of the Day😂

  Thinking if I should go to work or not 😂

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