Giuliani makes pro-industry pledges

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 10, 1993 by Lois Weiss

"People say to me," why do you want to be mayor of New York City, you must be crazy,' recounted Rudolf Giuliani to an assembled real estate crowd.

Noting that he is ready to make the city a better place, Giuliani continued, 'What I say is, 'you have to be crazy not to be mayor of New York City."

The mayoral hopeful told more than 200 members of the New York Association of Realty Managers (NYARM) gathered at a Tavern On The Green luncheon last month that his first moves would be to get rid of the occupancy tax and the unincorporated business tax. He would also decrease the current 21.25 percent hotel tax by at least 6 percent

"While the mayor is boycotting Colorado," Giuliani charged, "the Convention Association is boycotting New York,"

Giuliani insists his would be a bi-partisan administration and despite his cordial reception, with Democrats lining up to challenge Mayor David N. Dinkins first, he has a lot of campaigning ahead of him.

The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District received his greatest applause when, in response to a Brooklyn property manager who wanted to knwo what he would do about crime, he replied that he was in favor of the death penalty.

NYARM's real estate vendor members also applauded when Giuliani was asked if he would change the city's slow payment system. He called for speed guidelines for projects and payments and believes a 10 percent salary incentive should be given to city workers and vendors who complete their work promptly or more quickly. While he did not directly answer the question, it appeared he meant if the city workers worked faster, and vendors worked faster, they might have a check written more promptly as well.

Giuliani criticized the current administration for not insisting on productivity give-backs in recently renegotiated city contracts. He referred to gains in work rules and privatization made by cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia. This1 administration is 'tired, old, old fashioned, unwilling to challenge and doesn't have a lot of guts,' he added.

Concerned about the flight of the middle class, Giuliani believes low property taxes keep homeowners from leaving. He saw no reason to increase the taxes of these single-family homeowners in order to give a break to co-ops or commercial owners, noting that a property tax policy change would not be his first move if elected Mayor.

Instead, Giuliani says, he would make the city a better place to live first by improving schools, creating more incentives for primary health care, reducing social services and city employment costs and creating job training.