That's not true (paragraph 12):

"The legislation would only apply to Columbia and N.Y.U. and not other large private universities that own significant land, such as Cornell University in Ithaca. Lawmakers said that other universities would be excluded because their tax breaks are far lower than those of Columbia’s and N.Y.U.’s; the annual real estate tax exemption threshold would be $100 million."

Sure sounds to me like the other institutions are only "excluded" because they aren't currently making enough money to qualify for the tax. Kinda like I was "excluded" from itemizing deductions on my 1040 last year, due to insufficient mortgage and medical expenses. But my cousin Sam was not excluded. Same tax law applies to both of us.

Fair enough. We would need to wait and see the actual piece of legislation and I assume they wouldn't single out these institutions otherwise it would be too easy to contest at the state supreme court.

Here's the text to the amendment and, for now, it's just about allowing the state government to start taxing private institutions of higher education (not museums nor other non-profits though): https://www.nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=S...