New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been in office only since January, but he’s already turning the city in “the wrong direction,” former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said today.
Giuliani, the two-term Republican mayor dubbed “America’s mayor” after 9/11 put him in the national spotlight, said in radio interview that Democrat de Blasio’s policies emphasize dependency and big government, while having “less emphasis on very well-managed government,” reports the New York Daily News.
De Blasio’s predecessor, Republican Michael Bloomberg, had the city “on a very good course,” Giuliani told WNYM radio host John Catsimatidis, a grocery store magnate who ran against de Blasio.
De Blasio’s approach “seems to be moving the city in the wrong direction,” Giuliani said, pointing to “the desire to raise taxes – the city is the most heavily taxed city in the country.
Giuliani said de Blasio has chosen to embrace public schools over charter schools, when he should be expanding charters instead.
“I helped to start the (charter) movement and then Mike Bloomberg really expanded it,” said Giuliani. “What I support are alternatives to a public education system in New York City that is failing our children.”
But instead, de Blasio is “at war” with charter schools, a position Giuliani does not support.
The former mayor also said de Blasio’s proposed ban on carriage horses is “foolishness,” because the carriages are “one of the reasons” tourists come to visit.
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Actually De Blasio hasn’t done much so far, either positive or negative. He did re-hire Giuliani’s first police commissioner, Bill Bratton; Giuliani erred when he fired Bratton and De Blasio has rectified that error.
Charter schools have not been successful in improving overall educational outcomes. Many have been plagued with mismanagement and corruption; one that was just a few blocks from me closed recently after not giving any homework for an entire year. Diane Ravitch, formerly a big supporter, realized that charter schools aren’t working and today calls them a “colossal mistake”. (Lest you think she has become a born again liberal, she also opposes the Obama administration’s Common Core as well.) Giuliani is typical of today’s Republicans, pushing old ideas even when they have been proven not to work.
It is also worth noting that De Blasio’s Republican opponent, Joe Lhota, also pledged to get rid of the carriage horse rides.
Finally, Giuliani is wrong on taxes. New York City actually has one of the lowest property tax rates of any urban area in the United States — even after two big increases by Bloomberg. De Blasio is correct that the city should not further increase property taxes, and that the city’s income tax, which unlike the state’s, is not very progressive (it ranges only from 2.907% to 3.876%), could be increased for the highest earners with no economic harm. De Blasio should be commended for insisting that a major new program be funded — that is fiscal responsibility!