GOP Mayoral Hopeful Pitches Business Leaders

The Republican candidate for mayor made her pitch to the city's business community Thursday morning at a breakfast with the Association for a Better New York. But instead of giving a detailed jobs proposal or City Hall spending plan, Nicole Malliotakis resorted to a familiar line of attack against the mayor.

The Staten Island Assemblywoman blamed the de Blasio administration for, among many things, the spike in homelessness; the recent shooting death of an NYPD officer in the Bronx; the subway's outdated signal system and the fact that about 80 percent of city high-school students entering CUNY need remedial classes.

"That is not a success," Malliotakis said. 

Malliotakis said she wants to fix disparities in the city's property-tax system, using her taxes and de Blasio's as an example.

"I own a $550,000 valued home and I'm paying nearly twice as much than Bill de Blasio, who owns a house that's worth triple the amount," she said.

But when an audience member asked for a detailed plan, Malliotakis said she was still looking into it.

"I don't have an actual plan about what I would be doing other than I am studying it. I do think it's an issue," she said.

Malliotakis said she wants more government partnerships with private industry, praising the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island spearheaded by former mayor Michael Bloomberg. She also said the city should offer more vocational training for high-school students.

"Not everyone is fit for college," she said.  "Some kids like to work with their hands and we should encourage that."

But again, she didn't offer a specific plan to create jobs for them. When ABNY Chairman William Rudin asked for her plans to attract jobs and boost the city's economy, Malliotakis remained vague.

"I think the number one thing we can do is to make New York City a better environment for our businesses," she responded.

She added that businesses are burdened by city, state and federal regulations.

"There's a lot of policies that have come out of City Hall recently, whether it's the predictive scheduling or paid sick leave, and then you have them coupled with policies at the state level, like the minimum wage, then the federal level, the Affordable Care Act," she said. "All these things combined are strangling the business community." 

After the breakfast, Christine Quinn, the last woman to run for mayor, said most of the speech focused on homelessness and quality of life offenses like public urination. 

"I found many if not most of her remarks incredibly inappropriate and offensive," said Quinn, president of the organization Women in Need, which operates homeless shelters. "If you listen to her speech, apparently homeless people are the cause of all evil." 

The numbers show Malliotakis also has to up her game with New Yorkers. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday had de Blasio leading with 61 percent of likely voters compared to 17 percent for Malliotakis.

WNYC will be airing the first mayoral debate live at 7 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 10, on 93.9 FM and 820 AM and also through our web site.