NYC Power Broker to Help Guide Mamdani Transition

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2:09Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. Now, many, including those that are wealthy, are concerned about some of the priorities of incoming New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani. Now, weighing on this was one billionaire who does not call New York City home. We're talking about Citadel founder Ken Griffin. He talked about the city yesterday at a conference in Paris.

2:38Kathy Wylde:I think that New York City is a red flag because people put aside good sense and common sense to elect somebody who is incredibly charismatic, who ran a really powerful campaign on social media, but who ultimately doesn't have the ability to deliver on the promises that he set forth. New York took a big set back during the de Blasio days. And I hope that Mondami starts to think about how to pivot to a more thoughtful set of policies that will allow New York City to maintain its position, not only as one of the greatest cities in America, but one of the greatest cities in the world. And that, of course, was Citadel founder Ken Griffin there with Danny Berger of Bloomberg News.

3:19We want to get into our guest, Kathy Wild. She is president and CEO, outgoing president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, which represents much of the city's corporate leadership. So we're talking about real estate developers, private equity firms, banks, many, many companies. Bloomberg LP, by the way, is a member of the Partnership for New York City. She's also the part of New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani's transition team, and we have a lot of questions to ask her. Also with us is, of course, Bloomberg News senior reporter Miles Miller, all of us here in studio. I told you as you sat down that we have about an hour of questions, so we're going to start and cover.

3:55We'll talk fast. We will talk fast. Why did you want to be a part of the transition team for the mayor-elect of New York City? Well, I think to the point that Ken Griffin of Citadel just made, and he's one of our members as well and is a great corporate citizen of New York and Miami, he made the point about the concerns about the high expectations that Mayor-elect Mamdani gave to his voters. And he, to his credit, brought out 170 ,000 new voters, mostly young people in the primary. The cutoff age for his voter support was 45. So many of us are beyond that point and looking around and saying, oh dear, does he have the seasoning to be able to do this?

4:40And I think that he's got the energy and the intelligence, and it's up to all of us who have a little more seasoning to be helpful. And so that's why I joined the transition team and was happy to do that, and I'm working on the economic development workforce activities there. But in general, I think working with him to capture the enthusiasm and the energy, we came out of the pandemic very negative. Yeah. And we lost a million jobs and then concerns about the cuts from the federal government on entitlement programs, whether it's Medicaid and health insurance, that is the fight going on now. This casts a real pall over New York City, which is very dependent on those funds.

5:29So I think that what he's brought is a positive energy and we ought to capitalize on that. And hopefully he'll be the best marketer this city has ever had. Your role on the transition team, does it turn into a full-time job in the Mamdani administration? I am definitely not at my age looking for a full-time job. I'm trying to get away from a full-time job. Well, right now you have more than a full-time job because you're outgoing president of the partnership. I am outgoing, and I do not plan to take another job, but I do plan to help the new mayor if he wants it. So beyond the transition period, you would stay on as an advisor?

6:08Well, I don't know in what capacity, as I say. I'm there. I'm certainly going to help Governor Hochul deal with her challenges. I've worked closely with her. She's done a great job. And I think we're counting on her to continue to manage New York's relationship with Washington and the relationship between the state and the city, which is very important. Our affordability problems will not get solved by the city alone. This is going to take federal, state, city cooperation. And so I think all of us who are committed to New York City and future, we have to be thinking of all three levels of government and how we work with the leadership at all levels.

6:48Kathy Wylde:You brought Momdani to meet with business leaders on several occasions. I wonder if you can talk about what his demeanor is in these meetings. I've talked to Bill de Blasio about how he works a room, how Mamdani works a room, and really gets the business community to be comfortable around him. But also talk about some of these policy proposals that business leaders wanted answers to. What are the things that business leaders said to him? Well, that sounds like a lofty thing that won't get done, or, hey, that sounds like something that is much more than we're willing to back. Well, there's been quite an evolution since he won the primary.

7:24primary. So in terms of his having a more nuanced position on a lot of the policies, you know, during the primary campaign, there were a whole slew of candidates and everything was one-liners. And the social media stuff was one-liners or, you know, show and tell. When you get into a conversation with CEOs, they want to hear data, they want to hear facts. And I have watched him evolve and grow over the last eight months where we had conversations last week, one on housing, one on childcare, where he was there with a pen and a notebook, taking notes, asking questions, and coming back with very substantive responses.

8:08So he has absorbed a lot and is now digging deep on these issues that, you know, Ken Griffin expressed concern about the fact that he made a lot, you know, raised a lot of expectations, created a lot of idealistic notions about housing and child care and how we can do all this for free. I think he's very quickly figuring out none of this is free. Raising taxes creates real issues. You may raise the rates of taxes, but that may not result in more revenues if you scare people away or if you scare companies away. Or as we've seen lately, we've seen a real threat to jobs in New York. We, for the first time in my experience over 50 years, are seeing a decline in the number of jobs in our financial services industry.

9:02Scary thing. That's 40 percent of our state income tax revenues. We don't, I mean, these are, you know, we've got to pay attention. And I think he gets that. But we've got to be at the table discussing these issues and helping figure out how do employers help solve the child care problem. Kathy, you know, one of the things I think about, and I remember, you know, being at Milken years ago and talking with very wealthy investors who said, yeah, it's about time we pay more taxes. So what is the balance? And I am curious, among those folks that you talk to who are very wealthy, and a lot of times their wealth is not in income, it's assets and it's investment gains, what do they think, though, should be maybe more of their contribution?

9:46And I know they often contribute in philanthropy and so on. I know that. But I'm just curious, what is the balance of willing to pay more? Again, I've had side conversations with folks who are surprised that they aren't paying more in taxes. So what I've found, and for somebody whose upper income earned income in New York, which is our biggest taxpayers, we're paying 55 % of our income to the federal, state, and city government, if you're all in. So we're paying more than half my paycheck goes to the federal government. So it's not like we're getting away with something. for the very wealthy who are capital gains, et cetera.

10:29The big problem there is if they move their legal residence out of New York City, we don't share or get taxes. They aren't taxed here on the basis of their global income. And so we may get a piece of their paycheck, but not their wealth. And that's a big question. It is. But what I found is over many years, when business leaders and the big taxpayers are at the table and they see that, number one, government is doing what they can to figure out how do we offer the most efficient, the most effective services at the lowest cost possible? How do we make government more efficient on the one hand? So then you begin to narrow.

11:17So what's the delta in terms of what do we need to raise money? revenues for. So for example, when Dick Ravage in 2007 for Governor Patterson led the effort to figure out how are we going to pay to upgrade our subways, which were falling apart, we supported and the business community supported creating a payroll mobility tax where a portion of payrolls of corporations, employers who were in the metropolitan region would go to that. 82 % of the employees who work for our companies based in Manhattan take the public transit to get here. That was something everybody signed off on. We supported. We supported an increase in that tax twice.

12:00Same thing with congestion pricing. We supported congestion pricing. Obviously, a user fee where you get something, reduce congestion, more time in your day is easier to sell. So it is not, and actually when Mike Bloomberg was elected mayor right after 9-11, the city had to raise real estate taxes in order to rebuild and recover from the 9-11 shock. We supported that 18 % tax increase in real estate taxes. So it's not that we're anti all taxes. It's, is government doing what they can to keep costs down, to be responsible in what they're spending? And then what is the contribution and how do we make it that makes the most sense, gets the most bang for the buck?

12:45Just very briefly, because you spent such a big part of your career working on affordable housing, I'm wondering if the mayor is sticking to freezing rent as his solution for affordability, because not one person that we have spoken to over the last few months thinks that not increasing supply and rather freezing rent is the right way to approach the affordability crisis with housing? Well, the new mayor is very well aware that those are not mutually exclusive options and that if there's no economic return, nobody's going to build housing. He's figured that out. So he has said really since pre-primary that he understood the private sector had an important role in the supply side and he was going to work on that.

13:30So I think that, again, his view is much more nuanced. When he says, now when he talks about freezing the rent, he says, and one thing that will enable us to do that is if we reduce property taxes on rent-stabilized, regulated buildings. So he gets it. He can add and subtract. So can you come back? You said we had an hour's worth of questions. Fairly scratched the surface. But we so appreciate it. Kathy, thank you. Good luck. Thanks for having me. Kathy Wild, president and CEO, outgoing president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, part of the transition team of the New York City mayor-elect, and of course our Bloomberg News senior reporter, Miles Miller.

14:11They told us to expect change. They warned us about the transition. But honestly, they forgot the best part. This is the chapter where we finally focus on us. LifeMD delivers expert menopause and midlife care. Right from your home. From hormone health to holistic wellness, LifeMD helps you feel your best for the best years of your life. LifeMD, it's just getting good. Visit LifeMD.com slash goodlife.

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