Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic frontrunner for the New York City mayoral race, said affordability is the key to attracting more tech CEOs to the city.
During the first debate of the campaign on Thursday evening, candidates were asked how they would convince tech leaders who are concerned about increased corporate taxes to build their companies in NYC, instead of a city like Dallas.
It’s an especially relevant question for Mamdani, the democratic socialist candidate. His platform includes raising taxes on the city’s most profitable corporations and wealthiest residents to fund public services like transportation and childcare.
Mamdani didn’t address his tax hike proposals in his answer, but instead leaned on his affordability agenda and said CEOs will come if prospective employees can afford to live in the city.
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“We are going to make this city more affordable, so the workers who want to work at those companies can actually be able to do so,” the candidate said. “And we’re going to ensure that this city continues to be one where we see businesses opening and also stay open.”
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary held in June, was instead asked how he would persuade CEOs not to move their businesses out of New York due to the high cost of living.
Cuomo said he would start by telling business executives that he understood their frustration.
“I understand that the far left has been raising taxes and making businesses feel like the enemy. We get it. That’s gone,” Cuomo said.
“We’re not socialists. It didn’t work in Venezuela, didn’t work in Cuba, didn’t work here. We know that we have to work with businesses,” he added.
Cuomo was New York’s governor from 2011 to 2021. He stepped down from the position after he was accused of sexual harassment.
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Several times during the debate, Mamdani was pushed to reconcile his progressive agenda — which includes rent freezes and tax hikes — with the prospect of leading a city that is known as the financial capital of the world.
“New York City is the global headquarters of the finance industry,” Melissa Russo, a New York-based journalist and one of the moderators of Thursday’s debate, said. “How would you be the mayor of Wall Street and the DSA?”
Mamdani said he wants to generate wealth for all New York residents and that the current system has pushed the city toward its current poverty rate.
The candidate said small business owners and the workers are being “pushed out by corporate greed, by private equity, and by the politics that refused to fight for them.”
Behind closed doors, Mamdani has engaged with some of the city’s tech elites. In July, the candidate participated in a fireside chat in Midtown Manhattan that had about 200 startup founders and venture capitalists in attendance, Business Insider’s Melia Russell reported.
Some attendees said they were struck by Mamdani’s pragmatism.
“He’s engaging even though he knows that many people in the room don’t agree with a number of his positions,” venture capitalist Kevin Ryan, who moderated the fireside chat, told Business Insider. “I will give him credit for reaching out.”
