New York Tax Hikes Will Drive Businesses Out

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us is Steven Pullup, President and CEO of the Partnership of the City of New York and Steven, you’ve been on the job for.

0:10 Speaker 2 How long now, since early January, so it’s been a couple of months and it’s been a whirlwind of tax conversations.

0:18 Speaker 1 Yes, you’ve had some experiences and we’ll happy passover. I hope things have been going well the last a few days, and we’d love to get an update from you. We haven’t talked in a few weeks of what the heck is going on in our city. I understand there’s a little bit of panic with the the SMP and Moody’s

0:40 having a few doubts here and there, and maybe we’ll start with that because everything’s going to depend on that too.

0:48 Speaker 2 Look, we have a major concerns, as we mentioned last time, over the local economy. It’s pretty fragile, you know. The week of April sixth, so this coming week, the Partnerships four it’s going to start a major kind of media by particularly digital seven figures focused both on taxes in Albany to communicate support for the governor’s plan and push

1:09 back on the legislature, and then also some you know, public advocacy here in the city. So you know, we’re we’re going to ratchet up kind of the overt messaging. So that’s really important because I think the governor has been responsible and want to make sure people understand that new taxes just going to force people out of here.

1:26 But you know, importantly, I think you you met, you met the mayor, so you probably have some perspective after you had a one on one with him.

1:34 Speaker 1 No, well, I met the mayor and uh, you know, he was we were cordial to each other and it was nice to meet him. I enjoyed talking to him. And he is a smart guy. And I said to him, you’re a smart guy. You went to Bronx Science High School.

1:49 Uh and uh. I said to him, Well, we’re we’re on the eve of disaster, on the eve of success, because you can go either way depending on what you do. And I said, I’m here to say I’m here to help because we look, we all love New York City and we’re here to help you in any way we

2:08 can help you. And he understood that, and and you know, we agreed to continue discussions.

2:18 Speaker 2 Do you think he understands that, you know more costs and more taxes will lead to an exodus of businesses and then only increase the affordability crisis. Or you think he doesn’t really understand or he doesn’t really care about that point, I’m sure.

2:32 Speaker 1 Well, I’m going to tell you what happened. Uh. So the the some organization or some socialist organization or some I don’t know who it was. They they picketed my home, my home, how did they say it in the Godfather? You came to my home? Uh? And at noontime on uh what was it too? And that I went there and confronted them. Good news. The bad years

3:09 is we didn’t know if we’re gonna have ten people, twenty people, one hundred people, two hundred people. Well we had about twenty people, twenty five people. We had about thirty police officers, so everything was it was copleostic and I confronted them face to face. And they’re really after Governor of Hoko because they want Governor Huko to raise

3:33 them to give the mayor the money that he doesn’t have to balance his books. And they felt by putting pressure on me, I’m a friend of the governor that I’ll put pressure on her. I said, listen. I talked to everybody. I talked to I talked to the mayor, I talked to the President, I talked to the governor.

3:54 But you know, everybody has to make up their own decisions.

4:00 Speaker 2 Yeah, do you think that the governor hold the line? I mean, we’ve tried to be supportive, as I said, we’re going to spend some money in order to advocate publicly. But do you think she ultimately holds the line? I mean, the mayor is framing this really as he’s going to be able to get a win by pushing all the

4:16 nath to raise taxes. And I know the governor has held the line. Just what’s your gut? Is she going to be able to kind of continue that strong position for the next couple of weeks?

4:24 Speaker 1 Well, you know, it’s there’s an old expression. I had a Jewish mentor, I had many Jewish mentors, and one of the things she taught me it’s reasonable to believe a person will do tomorrow what they did yesterday. You ever hear that way? I did. I did Rule number six twenty eight or whatever it is. And the fact

4:47 is what happened. She said no, no, no, on congestion, pricing and then five minutes after she gets elected, she says, yes, we’re going to put on congestion pricing. Yeah.

5:01 Speaker 2 Look, I’m more optimistic.

5:03 Speaker 1 But I want to be optimistic. I want to.

5:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, I look, I think she understands. They know a lot of the business leaders have told her that the same way that Apollo announced that they’re opening the second headquarter. I can tell you in the last week there’s been several in the partnership that have reached out that said they’re going down the same road, exploring options in Florida

5:26 and Texas. And you know, some of these brands are major New York City brands that have headquarters here for one hundred years.

5:33 Speaker 1 Well, JP Wgan they’re leaving. JP Morgan has more employees in Texas than they have in New York. And Jamie Diamond was on Fox News the other day and he says that they are looking for alternatives all the time and that the Blue states are going to suffer a lot of losses.

5:55 Speaker 2 Yeah. The challenge is, I just don’t know if the fringe far left to understands how fragile things are, and that when one person or one big employer leaves, it ultimately increases the affordability crisis because there’s less jobs, less income and revenues for the state and for the city.

6:15 And so we’ve been trying to hammer that because you see people leaving. But I think that when they’re protesting outside your house just because they think that you should apply pressure to the governor speaks to the fact that maybe they just don’t connect dots that there is a massive problem and pushing people out will only increase that problem.

6:34 Speaker 1 You’re absolutely right, And they did not believe. They did not none of them believe the fact that that people will move, businesses will move. You know, I talk to you. I talked to Paul Zuba from the state, and look, you have X amount of businesses in the partnership. He has x amount of businesses in the state. And then

7:01 you got to you too. Both of you have to give the pulse of the situation to the governor and the mayor.

7:07 Speaker 2 We we do. It’s the reason that we’re going to start spending some more money overtly at the C four. It’s kind of a new space for the partnership to be in. But you know what’s important because I think, you know, politics today has shifted, whereas you know, the advocacy in the public sphere is really really important and directionally,

7:24 you know, you need to communicate broadly that how fragile the economy is and that you know, some of these legislators that are pushing tax increases for the sake of tax increases are really not thinking about the long term best interests of the city and Regent.

7:39 Speaker 1 I agree, anything else you want to tell to the.

7:42 Speaker 2 All, just wishing everybody a happy passover and happy Easter, and you know the home stretch on the budget, and you know, we’re going to support the governor because she’s out there doing the right thing and we want to continue to make sure that people understand how fragile the committe is.

7:58 Speaker 1 I agree, I’m supporting the mayor. I’m supporting the governor. I’m supporting the president. We need checks and balances and we want to make sure that everything balances.

8:07 Speaker 2 That’s quite a group that you got there. Have a great easter, John.

8:11 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, and you have a great rest of the passover and the pass over a great passover season. Uh, and don’t catch up against soon.