Posted on 02/28/2007 12:54:11 PM PST by pissant
NEW YORK -- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he will go back to Albany next week to push to keep rent controls on more than 1 million apartments, and to urge Republican leaders to come around to his position.
``I believe that we should continue rent stabilization and rent control,'' the mayor said. ``I will continue to oppose'' their elimination.
The mayor is scheduled to spend much of Thursday at the Capitol, meeting with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, and other leaders.
Giuliani is at odds over rent control with fellow Republican Gov. George Pataki and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Rensselaer County Republican, who have proposed revamping rent laws.
State laws regulating the rents of more than 1 million apartments, mostly in New York City, are set to expire June 15.
Bruno has sought the virtual abolition of rent controls, which date to the end of World War II. Silver, like Giuliani, wants the regulations extended.
Pataki's plan would decontrol households with incomes above $175,000 a year, except for people over 62 or the disabled. Rent controls for other tenants would continue until they and their families vacate or die.
In recent private talks among legislative leaders, Silver has revealed he may willing to permit the rent-regulated apartments of some high-income tenants to be decontrolled, according to news reports.
Under current law, renters with household incomes of $250,000 or more who live in apartments renting for at least $2,000 a month do not qualify for rent control, which stabilizes rent prices.
Silver ``would like to take it down from $250,000 to maybe $225,000, something like that,'' Bruno told the New York Post and the Daily News.
Giuliani told reporters Pataki is making a mistake by trying to lower the threshold.
``If the governor wants to protect 99 percent of New Yorkers, he's going to have to move that level all the way up, closer to the $250,000 where it's presently at,'' the mayor said.
On Friday, Bruno said a compromise on the rent issue, which has stalled the state budget and other issues such as welfare reform, was up to Silver.
``The message (from Giuliani) ought to be that unless they get to the table and do something before (June) 15th, they are going to see every tenant deregulated,'' Bruno said.
Silver spokeswoman Patricia Lynch did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment but told the Post, ``We've always been willing to discuss tinkering around the edges, including with luxury decontrol.''
A major stumbling block to an agreement on rent protections is vacancy decontrol.
It is the same story when housing prices are controlled by government. Rent control has allowed some people to take up more housing space than they would if they had to pay the full price that reflects other people's demand for housing.
The net result, whether in New York or San Francisco or elsewhere, is a lot of apartments with just one person living in each, and lots of families who cannot find a vacant place to move into. Housing shortages have resulted from rent control in cities around the world.
And a ten year old article is relevant...how? You can't find anything more recent to use?
What a socialist RINO...
Yet another one of Rudy's conservative positions and yet his supporters are scared of Hillary's marxism.
I didn't have to read the article to know it wasn't good for Rudy.
I knew by who posted it.:)
Where do you find all this great stuff?
Giuliani was for rent control? What a surprise.
Its stories like this that are starting to make Hillary look good.
:)
Ten years old is more than recent enough.
Especially when considering a presidential candidate.
Rhino Rudy can run from his record, but history has a way of catching up.
Hillary could be running against Satan and she still wouldn't look good.
That's it! I'll never vote for that bastard Guliani now! /s
Rudy Giuliani born... more to report shortly.
Okie doke. I'll go find ten year old articles on Tancredo, Hunter, and Brownback and get back to you.
10 years ago when the city was a completely different place to live
This is the best the Rudy haters can do? If you have to mention rent control, please mention how Giuliani destroyed the archaic and abused welfare system in NYC.
Good morning. This Monday I'll be making another trip to Albany to urge both houses of the State Legislature to act responsibly and extend the rent stabilization laws for the people of the City of New York.
By June 15th, legislators will need to come to an agreement about the rent stabilization debate that does not engage in a form of vacancy decontrol. We believe that would be a very big mistake for the people of the city.
Once again, we urge the legislators in Albany to take into consideration the views of the people of the city.
After all, those of us who live here have a better understanding and appreciation of what the situation is about in New York City. The rent control and rent stabilization laws are vital to the lives of over two million tenants in the city, many of whom are on fixed incomes or are elderly.
New York City is the economic engine of this state and we believe that our view should be given great consideration rather than pushed aside. The City generates more than 45 percent of the state's revenues; it represents 41 percent of the state's population, and has contributed greatly to the state's improving fiscal climate.
Therefore, we believe that Senator Bruno and other legislators should defer more to the consensus of the people of the City of New York.
It's interesting to note that when you take a look at the votes that would do away with rent stabilization and impose a wholesale form of vacancy decontrol on the people of this City, these votes would almost entirely come from people living outside of the City of New York.
Virtually all representatives of the city, both Democratic and Republican, support extending rent stabilization. In a sensible relationship between a state and a local government as large as New York City's, the state would be expected to give substantial consideration to the overwhelming view of the people who represent and live in the City of New York.
Let me reiterate one point that sometimes has been confusing. Rent control in New York City is already extended. Rent control protection involves about 100,000 apartments in the city. When the state changed the rent control and rent stabilization laws in the early 1970s, the state took over rent stabilization but it did not as clearly take over rent control.
On March 31st of this year, the City Council passed a bill that acknowledges the vacancy rate being 4.01 percent, a full one percent less than the emergency threshold of 5 percent. As a result of the bill that the Council passed and that I signed into law, the rent control protections continue for the people in those 100,000 rent controlled apartments.
If the City had the same authority to continue rent stabilization as we do rent control, and it hadn't been taken away from us by the state, you would be certain that rent stabilization would also be continued.
The bill we presented to Albany expresses the will of the overwhelming majority of people in the City of New York that rent stabilization should be continued and that there should not be vacancy decontrol, and we hope that that is given due consideration and respect by the State of New York.
In closing, I'd like to make two other points. I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Rebecca Sealfon, who captured first place at the 70th Annual National Spelling Bee. The first winner of the national title from New York City, Rebecca displays the drive and enthusiasm that has come to define most New Yorkers.
I'd also like to congratulate the police department, the people of the City of New York, all of the neighborhood and community groups for another truly remarkable achievement. Later on today, the F.B.I. will be releasing the year-end crime statistics for 1996, and I'd like to give you a brief preview.
Over the past three years, according to the F.B.I., the crime decline in New York City is the largest of any city in the United States of America. And among cities with populations of one million or more, New York City is now the safest city in America. That includes cities like Phoenix and Philadelphia and Los Angeles. New York is even safer than San Diego, California. Freedom from fear is growing in all of our neighborhoods and with it, the ability of New Yorkers to enjoy all the freedoms and opportunities of America's greatest city.
From Gracie Mansion, this is Rudy Giuliani.
Not very conservative, but completely understandable for a mayor of NYC. Any NYC mayor who wanted to ban rent controls would probably be shot before he ran again for office!
Who's Hunter?
Unfortunately, rent control is to New York City what social security is to Washington - a holy third rail that no city politician dare touch. No person who wants to abolish rent control would be elected mayor of New York City.
They are on their last gasps of breath that is why.
duncan donut!
Yet another one of Rudy's conservative positions and yet his supporters are scared of Hillary's marxism.
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Sorry situation, ain't it? But Hitlery must be stopped, even if it means Guliani to beat her. Yes, the lesser of two evils, but there is still a huge gap between her Marxism and his liberalism.
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