Robert Bertagna testifies against tax as socialist government overreach
Robert Bertagna, a 30-year homeowner, received a $52,000 surcharge notice despite being a primary resident. He calls the rollout a prototypical socialist government intrusion, warns of incremental expansion of state power, and urges the council to check the mayor's authority.
Can you hear me?
Thank you, Council Member Brewer, for convening this hearing.
My name is Robert Bertagna.
I have come here to talk about the implementation of the pied-à-terre tax.
My wife and I purchased our home 30 years ago.
We raised our family there.
We have filed taxes as New York City residents for decades.
My driver's license, voter registration, tax records, and property records all provide readily available evidence that we are New York City residents.
Yet last month, I received a letter from my government
telling me that my family will be subject to over a $52,000 annual pied-a-terre tax, unless I apply for an exemption and convince the city that the tax did not apply to me.
The letter
Or effectively said, we presume you owe us this annual $52,000.
Now prove that you do not.
And it will be at the sole discretion of the executive branch to determine whether you should pay the tax.
Every New Yorker should be appalled by this underlying principle.
The expansion of socialist state power rarely begins with government announcing that it intends to control the lives of its citizens.
It happens incrementally.
Government assumes a little more authority.
Citizens surrender a little bit more privacy.
And the burden gradually shifts from the government justifying its actions.
To citizens being required to justify themselves to the government.
Like this intrusion, each new intrusion is then defended as reasonable, necessary, and insignificant.
That is precisely why this episode troubles me.
Yet even as the coercive nature of this rollout became clear, the mayor has continued to defend it.
His willingness to defend and encourage this kind of prototypical socialist government intrusion should alarm each and every one of us.
This is not simply about whether one supports or opposes an anti-free market enterprise pied-a-terre tax.
It's about whether New Yorkers are prepared to accept an authoritative government that is allowed to selectively target certain citizens and require
I urge them to prove that the government should leave them alone.
I urge the City Council to provide the essential check on the mayor and ensure that this type of outrageous government intimidation of its citizens does not happen again.
Thank you for listening and thank you for staying.
Okay.
Thank you very much, sir.
I appreciate it.