Former CNN anchor and Democratic congressional candidate John Avlon has a history of defaulting on his property taxes and appears to be getting more than $2,000 a year in tax deductions by claiming his primary residence is in Manhattan, while actually telling voters he lives on Long Island.
Avlon, 51, is running to represent New York’s 1st Congressional District, and his campaign told The Washington Post that he lives in Sag Harbor, a city the former news anchor has called “home” since at least 2009.
“This community is my home and I’ve been consistent in that,” he said. He told News 12 on Friday. “I left my job at CNN in February to run for this position.”
But Avlon appears to have gotten a tax break of about $16,000 on a $3.36 million unit in a Gramercy Park apartment building, even though the tax break is only available to units designated as a principal residence, according to the New York City Department of Financial Records.
He and his wife, Margaret Huber, host of PBS’s “Firing Line,” bought a Manhattan condo in 2015 when he was editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, but it would be another two years before the couple took possession of their roughly $1.5 million Sag Harbor condo. Vanity Fair’s 2024 Candidate Profiles.
Report from Washington Free Beacon Smithtown Messenger Check your 2017 purchases The Southampton housing story was reported in 2017, with the latter outlet first disclosing city records about tax abatements to the Gramercy Park Co-op.
Additionally, the Sag Harbor home is currently listed for rent on the website apartments.com from August 2024 through Labor Day for $25,000.Please check back soon for upcoming availability.At least since April.”
Other reports and Avron family social media posts The Free Beacon also reported that the investigation is focused on the Gramercy Park home, not the Sag Harbor home.
A photo of Avlon shared by the Smithtown Messenger also shows him entering a Manhattan apartment building with the April 6, 2024 front page of The Washington Post hanging on a fence behind him.
Former New York City Finance Commissioner Andrew Sidamon Eristoff told the Post that the abatement program “puts the burden of proving primary residence on the condominium owner or condominium tenant-shareholder” and that “false certification of residence” can be a misdemeanor or Class E felony under state law.
“That being said, my guess is that once the city finds out, it will try to recover the unjustly abated amounts with administrative penalties and interest,” Sidamon Eristov added.
This is also not the first time a House candidate has run into problems filing property taxes.
Avlon missed a July payment and owed an additional $133.36 in fees the following month, according to the Village of Sag Harbor’s property tax portal, which also shows the property is owned by a limited liability company registered to Avlon’s Manhattan condominium.
He had tax liens of more than $1,400 on properties he owned in both March 2008 and February 2015, according to other New York public records.
An Avlon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the exemption but confirmed the unpaid taxes had been paid and noted that the candidate is registered to vote in the district in which he is running, while his Republican opponent is not.
Avlon, a former speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is seeking to unseat freshman Republican Rep. Nick LaLota, who does not currently live in the 1st District but has longstanding ties to the district.
The Republican incumbent is the son of a Nassau County police officer and served for many years in the U.S. Navy, deploying overseas three times, before serving as an aide in the Suffolk County Legislature.
“CNN’s John Avlon is either a Manhattan resident or a tax evader,” Will Cary, a spokesman for LaLota’s campaign, told The Washington Post. “Unlike lifelong Long Island resident Nick LaLota, Avlon refuses to answer basic questions about his residency.”
“Mr. Avlon’s contradictory and dishonest stories, and his greedy decision to claim a NYC resident tax abatement, raise further questions and voters have a right to know the truth. True Long Islanders can smell a sham from a mile away and no amount of dark money can hide the truth about ‘Manhattan’ Avlon,” he added.
The 1st District is rated as “likely Republican.” The nonpartisan Cook Political Report And in the 2020 election, he voted for former President Donald Trump by a margin of 1.8 percentage points.
