Thursday, March 29, 2007

Supply-Side Giuliani   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

The New York Sun has a nice editorial today both commending Giuliani's recent I'm-a-supply-sider comments and noting the contrast to his record.

Mr. Giuliani did cut taxes as mayor of New York, even with a Democratic City Council and state Assembly, but he still left the city's residents with one of the highest combined state and local tax burdens in the country. In the case of one of the biggest tax cuts during his tenure, the elimination of the commuter tax, Mr. Giuliani actually opposed the tax cut so vigorously that he brought a lawsuit jointly with the city's Democratic City Council speaker in an effort to get a court to order state lawmakers to keep the tax in place.

Giuliani even got involved in a Democratic primary race to oppose an assemblywoman who had voted to end the commuter tax. Nor was this the only time Democrats got to the mayor's right on taxes. The Speaker of the New York City Council, Peter Vallone, had to drag the mayor into letting the 12.5 percent income-tax surcharge expire—a tax cut that now forms part of Giuliani's vaunted tax-cutting record.

03/29 10:11 AMShare