Opinion

Bill & the middle class

By
Post Editorial Board
Published June 28, 2014, 4:54 p.m. ET
Bill de Blasio appointed six of the nine board members who will be determining the increases based on the city's affordability crisis, among other considerations.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. WireImage

Bill de Blasio wants to revive the middle class.

In a recent speech before a conference of mayors, the mayor defined the problem of inequality this way: “We’re in a country, by definition, that over generations has prized and cherished the notion of opportunity and fairness and equality, and yet, it has slipped away more and more with each year in recent decades.”

That’s certainly true for the city’s middle class. Today these New Yorkers are squeezed at both ends. From one side, by the erosion in traditional middle-class jobs, from the other by a cost of living rising faster than their incomes. We agree with Mayor Bill the government has a role in redressing this, though not the role the mayor envisions.

Here are our thoughts about where New York City might start:

  • Get rid of regulations on rent. Rental costs are arguably the biggest hit on Gotham’s middle-class families. But even as the city has been trying to regulate rents into affordability since World War II, market prices keep going up.That’s largely because rent control and rent stabilization effectively take nearly half the rentals off the market. They give owners no incentive to invest in their buildings and developers no incentive to build. The best gift the mayor could give for the city’s “have-nots” would be to end regulation, and let the market start expanding the housing supply.
  • More alternatives to failing public schools. Another big reason the middle class flees this city for the ’burbs is that the public schools are so bad. Charters and parochial schools help, but not on the scale parents need. To keep a middle class in the city — and help poor children rise to the middle class — the mayor needs to help give parents more and better options for schools.
  • Invite Walmart in. Of course, we don’t mean just Walmart. But the retail giant provides jobs and low prices for people who most need them. Walmart’s absence here is an icon for how New York too often treats business as the enemy — at the expense of the working and middle classes.
  • Lower taxes. New Yorkers suffer under one of the highest income-tax burdens in the nation, and each year more and more wealthy people change their residence to Florida to take advantage of its zero income tax. The middle class doesn’t have that option. So when the rich move and take their tax revenues with them, taxes on the middle class have to go up.
  • Cut spending. City spending has soared far faster than middle-class incomes. If people are to live decently, their government needs to live within its means.We do not mean to suggest that this list is either easy or exhaustive. But if Mayor Bill is truly serious about helping New York’s middle class grow and thrive, this is where to start.