Andrew Yang, a New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, speaks out against anti-Asian hate crimes during a news conference at the National Action Network on March 18, 2021. | Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

Yang cautions against taxing the rich in front of pro-business group

By SALLY GOLDENBERG

04/01/2021 05:15 PM EDT

Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang pledged “commuter incentives” and voiced skepticism about calls for raising taxes on high earners in a speech to a group of New York City’s civic and business class.

Proposing the “opposite” of a commuter tax, Yang floated the possibility of providing tax breaks or other financial incentives to attract workers who do not live in the five boroughs back to the city during remarks to the Association for a Better New York, a pro-business group.

He also raised concerns about calls from left-leaning politicians and the Working Families Party to raise taxes on high earners — an evergreen goal that is being pitched anew as the city and state grapple with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’re all stuck in Zoom purgatory, still mostly meeting virtually and still siloed from the human interactions that make us whole and draw us to this city,” Yang said, trading his usual virtual setup in his Manhattan apartment for an empty Midtown office. “Companies can get by on Zoom, as we’ve seen, but here’s the message we have to pound loud and clear: Companies cannot excel over Zoom.”

He said remote work threatens promotions and may hasten automation — an economic dilemma he focused on during his long-shot presidential campaign.

His team did not provide any details on his commuter proposal.

Several of Yang's competitors in the eight-way Democratic primary scoffed at the idea.

“I have long said we aren’t going to tax our way out of this crisis, but giving bottomless tax breaks to commuters and their employers is not going to get us out of this mess either,” Shaun Donovan, a former Bloomberg and Obama administration official, told POLITICO. “Talent decides where it wants to live, and businesses and capital will follow.”

He said Yang’s idea was akin to “giving tax breaks to [his] friends in Westchester.”

While acknowledging needed revenue, Yang has been hesitant to embrace calls for tax increases on the wealthy during his campaign — something that formed the foundation of Bill de Blasio’s successful mayoral bid in 2013. (The state never granted his desired tax increase, but funded his signature prekindergarten program without it anyway.)

Yang begrudgingly told Seth Pinsky, head of the 92nd Street Y, he would support raising taxes on the wealthy — initially avoiding that position and only agreeing when pressed repeatedly in an interview last month. “I want to be the anti-poverty mayor. I do think that New Yorkers at the top can pay their fair share and that they’ve been paying less than that over the last number of years,” he said at the time.

On Thursday, the current frontrunner notably avoided such a call when asked by Steven Rubenstein, chairman of ABNY.

“I want to be realistic about New York City’s value proposition vis-a-vis taxes,” Yang said.

Prior to Covid, he reasoned, more New Yorkers were willing to pay higher taxes than they would in other states in order to benefit from the city’s educational and cultural opportunities. But with schools and Broadway shut and crime creeping up, the city may not be able to afford higher taxes as it reopens, he said.

“If you raise taxes at a level where people actually vote with their feet, and also head to Florida, then you’re not serving the policy’s goal, which is generating revenue for the state or the city,” he said.

His reluctance to advocate for a tax increase puts him at odds with some of his competitors, who are more ideologically aligned with the Working Families Party and others championing the push in Albany.

“I’m not surprised that Andrew Yang, like many other mayoral candidates, are too afraid to talk about what it really means to create an equitable city by asking millionaires and billionaires to pay forward their fair share in taxes,” Dianne Morales, former CEO of an affordable housing nonprofit, told POLITICO. “The rich are literally benefiting from the Black and brown lives risking it all to keep us alive as we speak.”

And Maya Wiley, former attorney for de Blasio and MSNBC commentator, continued to aim her fire at Yang’s call earlier this week for the city to space out the spending of federal stimulus aid.

Her team intensified the charge, saying he changed his tune and likening him to former President Donald Trump after Yang said de Blasio agreed with his fiscal assessment.

“Andrew Yang just can’t get his story straight and that makes him dangerous for New Yorkers,” her spokesperson Julia Savel said. “He’s gone full ‘Trump’ and wants to pretend like everyone agrees with him.”

While his competitors took shots, ABNY’s audience seemed pleased with Yang’s exuberance for the city.

“I really want to say thank you for your passion. We are a group of people who believe that this is the greatest city in the world and our leaders should feel that and exude that every day and bring the whole world along,” Rubenstein said. “You clearly have that.”