Rudy Giuliani cautioned Thursday that increasing corporate taxes in New York City will likely push more businesses to relocate elsewhere, saying the city’s current leadership is repeating economic policies that previously drove companies away. Speaking on Newsmax, the former mayor argued that the approach being proposed today mirrors mistakes he worked to reverse while in office.

During an appearance on “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE,” Giuliani criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to raise corporate taxes at a time when many companies are already moving operations to states with lower tax burdens.

“It’s true. I have a sense of — it’s hard to describe,” Giuliani said when asked about the direction of the city. “Last night, for example, I had dinner with two very close friends, both of whom are very, very successful businessmen, both from New York, and they now live in Florida.”

Giuliani said the discussion with his friends focused on the same concern raised during the program: the steady movement of businesses away from New York toward states where taxes and operating costs are lower.

He contrasted Mamdani’s tax proposal with the economic strategy he adopted when he first took office as mayor in 1994. At that time, he said, New York City was grappling with budget shortfalls and rising crime in the years following the administration of his predecessor, David Dinkins.

“I went through with them the budget decisions that I made in 1994. I did exactly the opposite of what [Mamdani is] doing,” Giuliani said. “I had a deficit that proportionally was as big as his, maybe bigger.”

Giuliani said he determined that raising taxes during a fiscal crisis would only deepen the city’s economic problems by pushing residents and businesses to leave.

“I decided maybe I’d do something novel. I would lower taxes,” he said.

As an example, Giuliani pointed to a decision his administration made to dramatically reduce the city’s hotel occupancy tax.

“I cut it in more than half, and within two years I was collecting three times more revenue from it,” he said. “Three years later, I had so many more people coming to New York, so many more conventions. On the lower tax, I was making a fortune.”

Giuliani said the lesson from that period is that tax policies must remain competitive if a city wants to retain both businesses and residents.

“You have to have taxes, but they have to be like anything else,” he said. “They have to be reasonable, rational, sensible.”

{Matzav.com}