#Raising taxes is the wrong move

It’s no coincidence that Ray McGuire and Andrew Yang both panned the hefty tax hikes coming from the $212 billion state budget deal: They’re the two mayoral candidates with serious private-sector experience, unlike the rest of the pack and the state lawmakers responsible for this feeding frenzy.

As word broke that the deal means about $4 billion in new taxes, aimed at higher incomes and businesses, ex-investment banker McGuire warned, “What the state is considering will push companies and higher-income families out of the city, which will cost us tax revenue and jobs.” The hikes are also unnecessary, he noted, since the feds are sending state government nearly $13 billion in no-strings “relief” cash.

Yang also warned that raising taxes on higher earners could lead New Yorkers to “vote with their feet and head to Florida.”

The two candidates’ experience as executives leading large firms is sorely lacking in their rivals — who have mainly spent their lives far from the private sector.

McGuire rightly says, “We should use our federal aid as a stimulus to jumpstart the economy and grow our way out of the COVID recession.” Similarly, “Math Guy” Yang recently urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to sock away 70 percent of the federal stimulus money, instead of spending it on vanity projects aimed at burnishing his legacy.

But New York politicians only care about spending more on their pet causes and favored special interests.

The Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are bent on their madness, but maybe city voters will take note and reject the would-be mayors bent on doubling down on such foolishness — and driving New York City back to its 1970s lows.