Fighting Crime
Under Rudy Giuliani’s leadership as Mayor of the nation’s largest city, murders were cut from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001, while overall crime – including rapes, assaults, burglary and auto-thefts – fell by an average of 57%. According to the FBI, New York was transformed from the crime capital of the country into the Safest Large City in America, while becoming the global model for excellence in law enforcement. Rudy Giuliani believes that “Public safety is a fundamental civil right…when you reduce crime, you restore people’s freedom.”
Cutting Taxes
Rudy Giuliani cut more taxes than any Mayor in New York City history, reducing or eliminating 23 city taxes, saving individuals and businesses a cumulative $8 billion, while reducing New Yorkers’ tax burden by nearly 20%. By the end of Giuliani’s term in office, New Yorkers enjoyed their lowest tax burden in three decades, along with the creation of approximately 425,000 new private sector jobs.
Fiscal Responsibility
Rudy Giuliani inherited a $2.3 billion dollar budget deficit and turned it into a multi-billion dollar surplus, while cutting taxes and delivering balanced budgets. He cut the number of full-time city workers by more than 20,000 – excluding teachers, firefighters, and police officers – while slowing the growth of government spending to below the rate of inflation.
Welfare Reform
When Rudy Giuliani took office, more than one out of every seven New Yorkers was on welfare, reflecting intergenerational dependency and a weakening of the work ethic. Under his leadership, the City cut welfare rolls by more than 640,000 – to the lowest number since 1966 – eliminating fraud and abuse while turning welfare offices into Job Centers. Rudy Giuliani believes: “At the core of our approach to welfare reform is the basic concept of a social contract—that for every right there is a duty, for every benefit an obligation.”
Improving Education
Rudy Giuliani worked to reform the nation’s largest public school system, with 1.1 million schoolchildren. Under his watch, school funding increased from $8 billion to $12 billion, more than 13,000 new teachers were hired, computers were brought into classrooms and libraries, arts education was permanently restored, and targeted programs were offered to improve literacy and student proficiency in science. At the same time, he insisted on reforms such as an end to social promotion, abolished principal tenure, and created the nation’s first and most generous Charter School Fund. Rudy Giuliani believes that every parent should have “the ability to send their child to the school of their choice, be it public, private, or parochial.”
Quality of Life
When Rudy Giuliani took office, 59% of New Yorkers said they would leave the city the next day if they could, according to a CNN/Time poll. Drawing upon the “Broken Windows” theory of policing, the City cracked down on quality of life crimes such as aggressive panhandling, graffiti, and drug dealing, transforming places like Times Square into safe destinations for theatergoers and sightseers. The City launched an aggressive initiative against drunk drivers, and implemented a ban on sex shops within 500 feet of residential neighborhoods, churches, and schools. In addition, Mayor Giuliani acquired 2,038 acres of new parkland – the most in more than 50 years.
Protecting Children
Acting on his belief that “One of the most important responsibilities of government is to protect children from harm,” Mayor Giuliani worked to create the city’s first independent child welfare agency, reducing the foster care population by promoting a record number of adoptions, and doubling child support collections by cracking down on deadbeat dads, and implementing a program called HealthStat, which identified unenrolled children eligible for health insurance.
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