Two months ago, the hedge fund magnate Kenneth C. Griffin paid a record-breaking $238 million for a penthouse on Central Park South, and it wasn’t even what most people would call home. Mr. Griffin is from Chicago, where he can put his feet up in a penthouse he bought for $59 million, or in one of the rooms on two floors he bought for $30 million in a hotel there. He also has a $60 million Miami condominium and a $122 million London mansion.

The New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer, estimates about 5,400 properties in the city are worth more than $5 million and are not the owner’s primary residence. Some, like Mr. Griffin’s pad, are luxurious pieds-à-terre for out-of-towners. Many others were bought by shell companies that don’t reveal their true owners, meant to allow overseas tycoons to stash money out of sight.

At a time of soaring inequality and towering infrastructure needs, taxing these gleaming penthouses is an enticing idea. The logic is straightforward: It is one way in which New Yorkers can benefit from the desire of other people to visit the city that New Yorkers own and operate.

New York certainly needs the money.

There’s the added benefit that so-called pied-à-terre taxes are politically palatable. Sending a higher tax bill to wealthy homeowners who don’t live, pay taxes or vote in New York will be far more popular with lawmakers than broader assessments on wealthier residents, such as raising income taxes on millionaires or property tax rates on all luxury homes. Democrats, having won full control of the state government in November’s elections, are seriously considering a pied-à-terre tax in this year’s budget.