Opinion

Joe Lhota’s tax-cut plan to spur jobs

Bill de Blasio may talk about New York’s poor, but Joe Lhota is out with an economic plan that would help them. For folks looking for a ladder up, it’s the most promising news from the mayoral race yet.

Lhota’s plan is simple: Grow jobs by lowering costs (taxes, fines and regulatory hurdles) for businesses that create them. He’d cut or reform several business taxes, for example. He’d ditch “excessive” regulatory fines that add to the “already high cost of doing business.” He’s even looking to lower property taxes, insisting the city can get by without the extra cash.

Compare this with what de Blasio proposes: higher costs for businesses and disincentives for hiring, in the form of things like increased minimum-wage rates. Oh, yeah: De Blasio also wants to raise taxes by more than a half-billion dollars.

Instead of opportunity, de Blasio offers the unemployed more government — vaguely defined as “training” programs, “bringing together stakeholders,” a “job-creation coordinator” and the like. Let’s just say these days even Cuba sounds more market-friendly, with Raul Castro encouraging local entrepreneurs and trying to attract foreign investment.

In contrast to de Blasio, Lhota’s economic plan could mean the difference between, say, a bodega owner hiring another couple of workers or letting them go. Or between investors losing money and investors making profits that lead them to add jobs. If we hope to get the poor on the road to the middle class, these jobs are crucial.

Perhaps the best thing about Lhota’s plan is the idea behind it: “We don’t have a revenue problem,” he says, “we have a spending problem.” When was the last time you heard a candidate for mayor say that?