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Publication Date: May 28th, 2025
Image Remixed from The Economist
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Three Tax Scandals, One City in Denial, and a Mayor Missing in Action…
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1 - No Reassessment, No Fairness
Hudson has not conducted a citywide tax reassessment in nearly a decade, despite NYS' recommendation to do so every 4 years…
The result is a deeply distorted tax regime where owners of identical homes on the same alley pay wildly different rates, based solely on when they purchased.
Newer residents subsidise those who bought earlier, regardless of actual value. Mayor Kamal campaigned against this inequity. He has since entrenched it.
2 - Tax Hikes for Failing Schools
This year’s school budget passed with support from less than 10% of registered voters. The Hudson City School District raised taxes yet again, even as academic performance remains stagnant.
The system continues to reward employment, not education. Classrooms are failing, but payrolls are secure. The structure serves those who work in it, not the youth who study in it.
3 - $2.5 Million in Unpaid Taxes, Untaken
The city allowed more than 100 properties to fall into arrears, some for many years, with unpaid taxes exceeding $100,000 for some parcels.
The cumulative total: over $2.5M
Or enough for 3 Youth Centers.
City Hall delayed publishing the list, resisted public pressure, and blamed hard to find lawyers in NY... where lawyers outnumber pizza joints 20 to 1.
The omissions and delays now invite dark speculation about who was protected and why.
Hudson is not chuffed. Residents pore over the delinquency list, compare valuations on Zillow, and seethe.
What once was idle curiosity has become a forensic exercise in inequality. The sense of betrayal is no longer abstract, it is personal.
Meanwhile, Mayor Kamal, dubbed the "FB Mayor" is AWOL. He has refused to answer FOIL requests, so far declined invitations to public debates, and remains conspicuously absent from civic life, not to mention The Farmer's Market.
CC President Tom DePietro acts as his shield, but cannot mask the disarray.
This is not leadership. Hudson is not just rudderless, it is facing a mutiny.
We will be digging into the numbers this summer…
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Last edited/updated:
May 28th, 2025.
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