Political experts are right: Rather than today’s three-man muddle, New Yorkers deserve a clear, binary choice for mayor. So, Andrew Cuomo should abandon his campaign for City Hall.
Notwithstanding his energetic performance in Wednesday’s second of two mayoral debates, Cuomo is a loser. The once-obscure State Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani of Queens shocked him in the June 24 Democrat primary—43.9% to 36.2%.
The now world-famous democratic socialist is the toast of the rock-hard Left. The allegedly moderate Cuomo is only about two inches to Mamdani’s Right. Yaaaaaawn.
Deal killer: During the pandemic lockdown, Cuomo corralled COVID-positive seniors into nursing homes. They innocently infected healthy residents. Cuomo’s recklessness killed 12,743 elders. Rather than four years in Gracie Mansion, Cuomo should spend four years behind bars for negligent homicide.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa won the Republican mayoral nomination. He has every right to run. He should carry on.
Rather than a Mamdani-Cuomo blur, Mamdani-Sliwa would offer New Yorkers a Left-Right fork in the road.
Beyond Mamdani’s well-documented hostility to police versus Sliwa’s decades-long contribution to law and order, Mamdani-Sliwa would give New Yorkers a literal up-or-down vote on taxes.
What Mamdani wants on taxes is more. He cannot wait to hammer and sickle “the top 1% of New Yorkers.” Specifically, he aims to hike taxes on those who earn more than $1 million. The Hoover Institution’s David R. Henderson calculates that such a married couple filing jointly would see their local taxes rocket from 3.876% to 5.876%—up 51.6%. Mamdani also wants the top state corporate tax to climb from 7.25% to 11.5%—up 58.6%.
Palm Beach, here we come!
The smiling Stalinist may be the only politician ever to threaten tax hikes based on race. His website proposes “to shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.” When the Ugandan-born Mamdani sleeps, he dreams of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
On taxes, Sliwa goes 180 degrees opposite.
“You can cut property tax right away,” Sliwa told Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo on Oct. 19. “I will make it so that, for senior citizens who are 65 and older, they will be paying no property tax. I believe in ‘Improve, don’t move.’ I want to keep them here.”
Regarding the other end of the age spectrum, Sliwa says: “For young men and young women, 19 to 28, who have just graduated college and have the skills that our industry needs, a holiday from income tax. They shouldn’t have to pay because they’re fleeing, too. They’re migrating out of this state.”
Sliwa offers help on the way for Gotham’s overtaxed companies. His website promises to “Reduce NYC’s general corporate income tax rate from 8.85% to 6.00%”—down 32.2%—“to compete with cities like Boston (8.0), Chicago (7.0), and Miami (5.50).” Sliwa also would give employers a $7,500 tax credit for each local graduate hired and held for at least two years in finance, high-tech, health care, and other industries.
If New Jersey elects surging Republican Jack Ciattarelli as governor, NYC better cut taxes in self-defense. Under Mamdani, the top 1% need not flee to Florida for tax relief. Ciattarelli pledges lower and falling rates, right across the Hudson.
The giant, sucking sound of New Yorkers escaping through the Lincoln and Holland tunnels into the Garden State would drown out Gotham’s ceaselessly honking horns and the authentic urban gibberish of local lunatics.
“We must cut taxes,” Sliwa insists. “If we don’t cut taxes, our budget is floated. We will be fiscally dissolving.”
Sliwa should push tax cuts as his closing message. Voters adore the prospect of vibrant economic growth. Add Sliwa’s 45-year commitment to fighting crime, and New Yorkers could witness the greatest political upset since Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton nine Novembers ago.
Whatever Andrew Cuomo does, Sliwa will stand his ground and present the case for capitalism against Zohran Mamdani’s kinder, gentler Communism.
“I’m the Rudy Giuliani of my lifetime,” Curtis Sliwa says. “I represent the values of the Republican Party, and I’m in it to win it.”
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