New York City prides itself as the epicenter of the world. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been the most economically powerful city, while the NYC culture, music, and lore speaks for itself. But in recent years New York City has been riddled with crime, poverty, and drugs, that are particularly reminiscent of the city in the 1970’s. The city is in massive debt of $47.7 billion, at its worst debt margin since the Great Recession.
That does not mean that New York City’s best days are behind them. Like the city’s recovery in the 1980’s, and again in the 2000’s, New York can rise once again, but it needs better leadership. New York City has a very democratic system. A police force protects property, a fire department protects life, and welfare programs offer a social safety net to protect everyone. Reliance upon the New York City government has produced a level of trust in the government, but that trust is turning into a forfeiture of independence.
Let’s explore the Bloomberg example. Michael Bloomberg was one of the most popular New York City mayors in recent history. He served from 2002 through 2013, after twenty years as CEO of Bloomberg L.P., and started as a Republican, but switched to Independent. Running in a historically, very Democratic city, Bloomberg won three mayoral elections. He especially won in times of crisis, just two months after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and in 2009, one year after the devastating financial crisis. He campaigned on socially liberal and fiscal conservative policies but was still far from a libertarian.
A hardline conservative or libertarian could never win in a mayoral position in a major city like New York in the 21st century, but Bloomberg proved that a free-market hardliner can. He remarkably turned New York City’s $6 billion deficit into a $3 billion surplus, by tightening spending and making cuts to city agencies. He was not afraid to back big corporations, providing them with tax breaks to promote economic growth. Bloomberg put economic responsibility over approval ratings and optics. In 2005, Bloomberg encouraged Goldman Sachs to establish its headquarters across from Ground Zero by promising $1.65 billion in tax breaks. That same year, Bloomberg won Manhattan in the mayoral election, with a remarkable 60.4% of the vote, with the highest margin since 1965. Although it’s typically unpopular to be a supporter of “big business,” most of the Manhattanites must have supported the Goldman Sachs tax breaks, because it was done to improve the economy.
Bloomberg said:
Being a fiscal conservative is not about slashing programs that help the poor, or improve health care, or ensure a social safety net. It’s about insisting services are provided efficiently, get to only the people that need them, and achieve the desired results. Fiscal conservatives have hearts too – but we also insist on using our brains, and that means demanding results and holding government accountable for producing them. To me, fiscal conservatism means balancing budgets – not running deficits that the next generation can’t afford. It means improving the efficiency of delivering services by finding innovative ways to do more with less. It means cutting taxes when possible and prudent to do so, raising them overall only when necessary to balance the budget, and only in combination with spending cuts. It means when you run a surplus, you save it; you don’t squander it. And most importantly, being a fiscal conservative means preparing for the inevitable economic downturns – and by all indications, we’ve got one coming.
Like any politician, Bloomberg wasn’t without controversy, as he raised the property taxes during his mayoral term, increased gun control, and supported the proposed Islamic complex near Ground Zero. When Bloomberg ran for president in 2020 in the Democratic primaries, his policies were almost unrecognizable from his mayoralty. He supported very progressive policies, including a $15 minimum wage and a hybrid single-payer healthcare system. He came fourth in the primaries, behind Biden, Sanders, and Warren, failing to connect with the American people.
In 2013, New York went back to its liberal roots, voting Bill de Blasio for mayor, the first Democrat victory since David Dinkins in 1989. De Blasio left office in 2021 with poor approval ratings, and New Yorkers are continuing to leave the Big Apple. Despite voting overwhelmingly Democratic, every New York City borough shifted Republican in 2020. If bad economic policies persist, New York City should look to free market policies as the solution.
