Mayor Adams pulled in $326K last year, but lost money on Brooklyn property after rat mitigation work: tax returns
Mayor Adams raked in more than $326,000 in income last year, but declared a net loss of nearly $5,000 on his rental building in Brooklyn — a financial setback that came after he spent heavily on rat mitigation at the property, his tax returns show.
The returns, which were released by City Hall to reporters Thursday as is customary, show Adams made $326,467 in 2022, up from the $245,324 he earned in 2021, his last year as Brooklyn borough president.
Of his 2022 income, $255,982 came from his taxpayer-funded mayoral salary. In addition, he received $63,353 from his NYPD pension and $7,104 in royalty income from a cookbook he authored, the returns reveal.
He paid a total of $84,718 in federal tax on his 2022 income, $371 more than he should have, meaning he will receive that money as a refund, according to the returns. That shakes out to a roughly 26% federal tax rate for the mayor, though he also paid another $28,385 in state and city taxes, for which he is entitled to a $1,226 refund, his returns state.
In his 2021 return, the final income category Adams listed was a net win of about $3,400 received from renting out multiple units in his rowhouse on Lafayette Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
But in the latest return, Adams declared a net loss of $4,708 on the building. The reason for the loss is that he took in $19,850 in rental income in 2022, while the costs of depreciation, insurance and an expense category only categorized as “other” clocked in at $24,568.
The “other” category marked the largest individual expense at $11,313. A spokesman for Adams said the spending category related to “investments in the infrastructure of the home,” but would not elaborate on what type of improvements.
Earlier this year, Adams said he spent $7,000 in 2022 on traps and other extermination-related gadgets to tackle a rat infestation at the building. The persistent infestation has resulted in Adams being slapped with four $300 Health Department summonses since taking office.
The Adams rep said he could not immediately confirm if the $7,000 shelled out on rodent extermination was part of the “other” category.
While challenging two of his summonses during an administrative city court hearing this past January, Adams, an avowed rat hater, told a presiding officer that some of the $7,000 was spent on a harrowing device that lures rodents into a vat of poisonous goo.
“I will again challenge these violations and show that rats don’t run this city,” he said at the time. The officer dismissed one of the tickets after Adams’ protest, but made him pay the other $300 one.
The $19,850 Adams collected in rent last year is less than the $24,600 he received in 2021.
The reason for the dip in rental income is that one of the mayor’s tenants is only “paying intermittently,” his spokesman said. The rep would not elaborate on who the tenant is or why they aren’t paying rent regularly.
During his run for mayor in 2021, Adams faced heat for failing for years on tax forms to properly disclose rental income he netted from the Lafayette Ave. building. The property also became the subject of much controversy after several of Adams’ 2021 campaign rivals accused him of living full-time at a New Jersey co-op he co-owns with his partner, Tracey Collins, even though he claimed the Lafayette Ave. address as his primary residence.
Adams’ spokesman said one spending category that’s missing from the mayor’s latest return is donations he made to “several charities and churches.”
“These contributions are not reflected in his return, since he did not receive or ask for a receipt from each entity and did not want to list the deductions without that documentation in case it were needed,” the spokesman said. “He also paid for food and clothing for several New Yorkers in need who reached out to him over the course of the year, which is also not reflected in the return.”
The spokesman would not name the charities and churches or say who the New Yorkers are the mayor gave food and clothing to.
