Checking off another box for his carefully scripted mayoral campaign, Rep. Anthony Weiner Tuesday laid out a five-point plan for “keeping New York the capital of the middle class” by encouraging job growth in the boroughs outside Manhattan.

He also solidified his opposition to Wal-Mart and other big-box stores, called for the city to reclaim control from Albany and “unelected” transportation authorities, endorsed “unfettered” mayoral control of schools, and declined to rule out a tax increase if he wins the election next year.

Speaking to several hundred businesspeople at a Crain’s Breakfast Forum, Mr. Weiner called for the city to compete better for second-tier jobs with regional rivals such as Jersey City, Westchester County, and Stamford, Conn. Citing eight different taxes that businesses face here but not in Jersey City, he said the city should reduce that burden to spur outer-borough job creation. Tax incentives should be automatic, to cut out the bureaucracy and uncertainty of project-by-project applications, the Queens Democrat said.

His fourth and fifth points were for the city government to hire business people to focus on job retention, and to do more for small business, for example by connecting them with tech-savvy high schoolers who could build Web sites for them.

In previous speeches, Mr. Weiner had put forward policy proposals to cut taxes on the middle class, reform Medicaid spending, use entrepreneurship to solve city problems, and encourage volunteerism in the city.

He and City Comptroller Bill Thompson are the leading candidates to succeed term-limited Mayor Michael Bloomberg. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is expected to join them in the Democratic primary, while supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis is running on the Republican line. Other candidates might still emerge.

Mr. Weiner, raised in 1970s Brooklyn, said the rungs climbed by his middle-class parents are disappearing. The city now has 3.67 million jobs, down from 3.74 million in 1970, he said. Competitors like Jersey City are stealing jobs with generous tax incentives and benefits, and New York must be “more active” in its response, he said.

But Bettina Damiani, project director of subsidy watchdog group Good Jobs New York, who attended the speech in midtown, said Mr. Weiner’s approach doesn’t sound any different from what the last four mayors have done. “We shouldn’t be fighting New Jersey and Connecticut,” she said. “I don’t think we should have a race to the bottom for subsidies.”

Mr. Weiner said New York will never have the lowest cost of doing business, but said it should not disregard cost as a factor. He cited the example of Brooklyn Brewery, which has been unable to expand in its home borough. But Ms. Damiani said the beer maker is being squeezed in by condominium development, not city taxes.

Asked about the prospect of tax hikes, Mr. Weiner said, “I don’t want to raise taxes,” though he declined to rule them out. He said he prefers to raise revenue through targeted tax cuts, and noted that states with the smallest growth have the heaviest tax burden.

The congressman seemed to support efforts to require unionized and prevailing wage jobs in new projects like Willets Point, Queens, and at a Bronx armory that will require tenants to pay prevailing wage, saying, “Let’s see if it works.” He noted that private developers are betting that they will, and said non-union discounters like Wal-Mart were not welcome here. “What is the value of having a Wal-Mart on Queens Boulevard that wipes out the rest of Queens Boulevard?” he asked. “The big-box store undercuts local development.”

Mr. Weiner said the state Legislature’s power over New York City is the product of a bygone era when state government was seen as more responsible than City Hall, a dynamic that has now been reversed. The city should move to reclaim its rights, he said, but he did not explain how it might do so.

He asked people to check out a 5,000-word blueprint on his plans for the middle class at his new Web site, keystothecity.org.

Source: Crains NY