December 18, 2025 • 12 mins
Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, facing a deficit of as much as $10 billion in the next fiscal year, has named Sherif Soliman as New York City’s next budget director. The veteran of three previous mayoral administrations will oversee the Big Apple's $120 billion budget.
The move comes less than a month after the Mamdani transition team announced that it would be bringing Kathy Wylde, the outgoing President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, into the fold. Wylde discusses her role within the new administration, and its relationship with the local business community. Kathy speaks with Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec and Bloomberg News Senior Producer Myles Miller on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Now, many including those that are wealthy, are concerned about
some of the priorities of incoming New York City mayor.
Mumdani now weighing on this was one billionaire who does
not call New York City home. We're talking about Citadel
founder Ken Griffin. He talked about the city yesterday at
a conference in Paris.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I think that New York City is a red flag
because people put aside good sense and common sense to
luck somebody who is incredibly charismatic, who ran a really
powerful campaign on social media, but who ultimately doesn't have
the ability to deliver on the promises that he set forth.
New York took a big set back during the Deblasio days,
(00:54):
and I hope that Mondamie starts to think about how
to pivot to a more thoughtful set of policies that
will allow New York City to maintain its position. Not
only is one of the greatest cities in America, but
one of the greatest cities in the world.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And that, of course was Citadel founder Ken Griffin there
with Danny Berger of Bloomberg News. We want to get
into our guest, Kathy Wilde. She is president and CEO
outgoing president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City,
which represents much of the city's corporate leadership. So we're
talking about real estate developers, private equity firms, banks, many,
many companies. Bloomberg LP, by the way, is a member
(01:28):
of the Partnership for New York City. She's also the
part of New York City Mayor Elect Zoroon Mum Donnie's
transition team, and we have a lot of questions to
ask her. Also with us is of course Bloomberg News
senior reporter Miles Mine Miller, all of us here in studio.
I told you as you sat down that we have
about an hour of question So we're going to start
and Kep, we'll talk fest, we will talk fast. Why
(01:49):
did you want to be a part of the transition
team for the Mayor elect of New York City.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Well, I think to the point that Ken Griffin of
Citadel just made and he's one of our members as well,
and is a great corporate citizen of New York. In Miami.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
He has.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
He made the point about the concerns about the high
expectations that Mayor elect Mom Donnie gave to his voters,
and he, to his credit, brought out one hundred and
seventy thousand new voters, mostly young people, in the primary.
The cutoff age for his voter his voter support was
(02:25):
forty five. So many of us are beyond that point
and looking around and saying, oh, dear, does he have
the seasoning to be able to do this? And I
think that he's got the energy and the intelligence, and
it's up to all of us who have a little
more seasoning and to be helpful. And so that's why
I joined the transition team and was happy to do that,
(02:47):
and then working on the economic development workforce activities there,
But in general, I think working with him to capture
the enthusiasm and the energy. We came out of the
pandemic very negative and we lost a million jobs, and
then concerns about the cuts from the federal government on
(03:10):
entitlement programs, whether it's Medicaid and health insurance, that there's
the fight going on now. This casts a real pall
over New York City, which is very dependent on those funds.
So I think that what he's brought is a positive
energy and we ought to capitalize on that, and hopefully
he'll be the best marketer this city has ever had.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Your role on the transition team, does it turn into
a full time job in the Mamdani administration.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I am definitely not at my age looking for a
full time job. I'm trying to get away from.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
A full time because you're outgoing as president of the Partnership.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I am outgoing and I do not plan to take
another job. But I do plan to help the new
mayor if he wants it.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So beyond the transition period.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Would as an advisor, well, I don't know in what capacity.
As I say i'm there, I'm certainly going to help
Governor Hokeel deal with her challenges. Where I've worked closely
with her, She's done a great job, and I think
we're counting on her to continue to manage New York's
relationship with Washington and the relationship between the state and
(04:21):
the city, which.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Is very important.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Our affordability problems will not get solved by the city alone.
This is going to take federal, state, city cooperation, and
so I think all of us who are committed to
New York City in the future. We have to be
thinking of all three levels of government and how we
work with the leadership at all levels.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
You brought mum Donnie to meet with business leaders on
several occasions. I wonder if you can talk about what
his demeanor is in these meetings. Right, I've talked to
Bill de Blasio about, you know, how he works a room,
how mum Donnie works a room and really gets the
business community to be comfortable around him. But we'll talk
about some of these policy proposals that business leaders wanted
(05:03):
answers to What are the things that business leaders said
to him, Well, that sounds like a lofty thing that
won't get done, or hey, that sounds like something that
is much more than we're willing to back.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Well, there's been quite an evolution since he won the primary,
so in terms of his having a more nuanced position
on a lot of the policies. You know, during the
primary campaign there were whole slewer candidates and everything was
one liners, and the social media stuff was one liners
or you know, show and tell. When you get into
(05:37):
conversation with CEOs, they want to hear data, they want
to hear facts, and I have watched him evolve and
grow over the last eight months where we had conversations
last week, one on housing, one on childcare, where he
was there with a pen and a notebook, taking notes,
asking questions, and coming back with very substance to responses.
(06:01):
So he has absorbed a lot and is now digging
deep on these issues that you know, Ken Griffin expressed
concern about the fact that he made a lot, you know,
raised a lot of expectations, create a lot of idealistic
notions out housing and childcare and how we can do
(06:24):
all this for free. I think he's very quickly figuring
out none of this is free. Raising taxes creates real issues.
You may raise the rates of taxes, but that may
not result in more revenues if you scare people away,
or if you scare companies away, or as we've seen lately,
we're seeing a real threat to jobs in New York
(06:44):
for the first time, first time in my experience over
fifty years, are seeing a decline in the number of
jobs in our financial services industry. Scary thing. That's forty
percent of our state income tax revenues. We don't I mean,
these are you know, we've got to pay attention. And
I think he gets that. But we've got to be
(07:05):
at the table discussing these issues and helping figure out
how to employers help solve the childcare problem.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Kathy, you know, one of the things I think about
and I remember, you know, being at milk and years
ago and talking with very wealthy investors who said, yeah,
it's about time we pay more taxes. So what is
the balance? And I am curious among those folks that
you talk to who are very wealthy, and a lot
of times their wealth is not an income, it's assets
and it's investment gained. What do they think, though, should
(07:37):
be maybe more of their contribution. And I know they
often contribute in philanthropy and so on. I know that,
but I'm just curious, what is the balance of willing
to pay more when again, I've had side conversations with
folks are surprised that they aren't pay more in taxes.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So what I've found and for somebody who's upper income
earned income in New York, which is you know, our
biggest taxpayers, we're paying fifty five percent of our income
to the federal, state and city government with you all
in so we're paying more more than half my paycheck
goes to the federal government. So it's not like we're
(08:17):
getting away with something for the very wealthy who are
capital gains, et cetera. The big problem there is if
they move their legal residents out of New York City,
we don't get we don't share or get taxes. They
aren't taxed here on the basis of their global income,
and so we may get their a piece of their paycheck,
(08:40):
but not their wealth, right, And that's a big question.
It is. But what I found is over many years,
when when business leaders and the big taxpayers are at
the table and they see that number one government is
doing what they can to figure out how do we
offer the most efficient, the most effective services at the
(09:02):
lowest cost possible. How do we make government more efficient?
On the one hand, then so then you begin to narrow,
so what's the delta in terms of what what do
we need to raise revenues for? So, for example, when
Dick Ravage in two thousand and seven, for Governor Patterson
led the effort to figure out how are we going
(09:24):
to pay to upgrade our subways which were falling apart,
we supported and the business community supported creating a payroll
mobility tax, where a portion of payrolls of corporations employers
who were in the metropolitan region would go to that
eighty two percent of the employees who work for our
companies based in Manhattan take the public transit to get here.
(09:47):
That was something everybody signed off on we supported. We
supported an increase in that tax twice. Same thing with
congestion pricing. We supported congestion pricing. Obviously a user fee
where you get something reduced congestion more time in your day,
is easier to sell, so it is not. And actually,
(10:07):
when Mike Bloomberg was elected mayor right after nine to eleven,
the city had to raise real estate taxes in order
to rebuild and recover from the nine to eleven shot.
We supported that eighteen percent tax increase in real estate taxes.
So it's not that we're anti all taxes. Is government
doing what they can to keep costs down, to be
(10:29):
responsible in what they're spending. And then what is the
contribution and how do we make it that makes the
most sense, gets the most bang for the buck.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Just very briefly, because you spent such a big part
of your career working on affordable housing, I'm wondering if
the mayor is sticking to freezing rent as his solution
for affordability, because not one person that we have spoken
to over the last few months thinks that not increasing
supply and rather freezing rent is the right way to
(10:58):
approach the affordability crisis with housing.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Well, the new mayor is very well aware that those
are not mutually exclusive options and that if there's no
economic return, nobody's going to build housing. He's figured that out,
so he has He has said really since pre primary
that he understood the private sector had an important role
in the supply side, and he was going to work
(11:22):
on that. So I think that again his view is
much more nuanced when he says now when he talks
about freezing the rent, he says, and one thing that
will enable us to do that is if we do
reduce property taxes on rent stabilized regulated buildings. So he
gets it. He can add and subtract.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
So can you come back, I.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Said, you said, we had an hour, had an hour
hour's worth of question, barely service.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
But we still appreciate Kathy, Thank you, good luck, Thank
having Kathy Wilde, President and CEO of Going, President and
CEO of the Partnership for New York City, part of
the transition team of the New York City Mayor elect,
and of course, our Bloomberg senior reporter Miles Miller
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Now, many including those that are wealthy, are concerned about
some of the priorities of incoming New York City mayor.
Mumdani now weighing on this was one billionaire who does
not call New York City home. We're talking about Citadel
founder Ken Griffin. He talked about the city yesterday at
a conference in Paris.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I think that New York City is a red flag
because people put aside good sense and common sense to
luck somebody who is incredibly charismatic, who ran a really
powerful campaign on social media, but who ultimately doesn't have
the ability to deliver on the promises that he set forth.
New York took a big set back during the Deblasio days,
(00:54):
and I hope that Mondamie starts to think about how
to pivot to a more thoughtful set of policies that
will allow New York City to maintain its position. Not
only is one of the greatest cities in America, but
one of the greatest cities in the world.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And that, of course was Citadel founder Ken Griffin there
with Danny Berger of Bloomberg News. We want to get
into our guest, Kathy Wilde. She is president and CEO
outgoing president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City,
which represents much of the city's corporate leadership. So we're
talking about real estate developers, private equity firms, banks, many,
many companies. Bloomberg LP, by the way, is a member
(01:28):
of the Partnership for New York City. She's also the
part of New York City Mayor Elect Zoroon Mum Donnie's
transition team, and we have a lot of questions to
ask her. Also with us is of course Bloomberg News
senior reporter Miles Mine Miller, all of us here in studio.
I told you as you sat down that we have
about an hour of question So we're going to start
and Kep, we'll talk fest, we will talk fast. Why
(01:49):
did you want to be a part of the transition
team for the Mayor elect of New York City.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Well, I think to the point that Ken Griffin of
Citadel just made and he's one of our members as well,
and is a great corporate citizen of New York. In Miami.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
He has.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
He made the point about the concerns about the high
expectations that Mayor elect Mom Donnie gave to his voters,
and he, to his credit, brought out one hundred and
seventy thousand new voters, mostly young people, in the primary.
The cutoff age for his voter his voter support was
(02:25):
forty five. So many of us are beyond that point
and looking around and saying, oh, dear, does he have
the seasoning to be able to do this? And I
think that he's got the energy and the intelligence, and
it's up to all of us who have a little
more seasoning and to be helpful. And so that's why
I joined the transition team and was happy to do that,
(02:47):
and then working on the economic development workforce activities there,
But in general, I think working with him to capture
the enthusiasm and the energy. We came out of the
pandemic very negative and we lost a million jobs, and
then concerns about the cuts from the federal government on
(03:10):
entitlement programs, whether it's Medicaid and health insurance, that there's
the fight going on now. This casts a real pall
over New York City, which is very dependent on those funds.
So I think that what he's brought is a positive
energy and we ought to capitalize on that, and hopefully
he'll be the best marketer this city has ever had.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Your role on the transition team, does it turn into
a full time job in the Mamdani administration.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I am definitely not at my age looking for a
full time job. I'm trying to get away from.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
A full time because you're outgoing as president of the Partnership.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I am outgoing and I do not plan to take
another job. But I do plan to help the new
mayor if he wants it.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So beyond the transition period.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Would as an advisor, well, I don't know in what capacity.
As I say i'm there, I'm certainly going to help
Governor Hokeel deal with her challenges. Where I've worked closely
with her, She's done a great job, and I think
we're counting on her to continue to manage New York's
relationship with Washington and the relationship between the state and
(04:21):
the city, which.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Is very important.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Our affordability problems will not get solved by the city alone.
This is going to take federal, state, city cooperation, and
so I think all of us who are committed to
New York City in the future. We have to be
thinking of all three levels of government and how we
work with the leadership at all levels.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
You brought mum Donnie to meet with business leaders on
several occasions. I wonder if you can talk about what
his demeanor is in these meetings. Right, I've talked to
Bill de Blasio about, you know, how he works a room,
how mum Donnie works a room and really gets the
business community to be comfortable around him. But we'll talk
about some of these policy proposals that business leaders wanted
(05:03):
answers to What are the things that business leaders said
to him, Well, that sounds like a lofty thing that
won't get done, or hey, that sounds like something that
is much more than we're willing to back.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Well, there's been quite an evolution since he won the primary,
so in terms of his having a more nuanced position
on a lot of the policies. You know, during the
primary campaign there were whole slewer candidates and everything was
one liners, and the social media stuff was one liners
or you know, show and tell. When you get into
(05:37):
conversation with CEOs, they want to hear data, they want
to hear facts, and I have watched him evolve and
grow over the last eight months where we had conversations
last week, one on housing, one on childcare, where he
was there with a pen and a notebook, taking notes,
asking questions, and coming back with very substance to responses.
(06:01):
So he has absorbed a lot and is now digging
deep on these issues that you know, Ken Griffin expressed
concern about the fact that he made a lot, you know,
raised a lot of expectations, create a lot of idealistic
notions out housing and childcare and how we can do
(06:24):
all this for free. I think he's very quickly figuring
out none of this is free. Raising taxes creates real issues.
You may raise the rates of taxes, but that may
not result in more revenues if you scare people away,
or if you scare companies away, or as we've seen lately,
we're seeing a real threat to jobs in New York
(06:44):
for the first time, first time in my experience over
fifty years, are seeing a decline in the number of
jobs in our financial services industry. Scary thing. That's forty
percent of our state income tax revenues. We don't I mean,
these are you know, we've got to pay attention. And
I think he gets that. But we've got to be
(07:05):
at the table discussing these issues and helping figure out
how to employers help solve the childcare problem.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Kathy, you know, one of the things I think about
and I remember, you know, being at milk and years
ago and talking with very wealthy investors who said, yeah,
it's about time we pay more taxes. So what is
the balance? And I am curious among those folks that
you talk to who are very wealthy, and a lot
of times their wealth is not an income, it's assets
and it's investment gained. What do they think, though, should
(07:37):
be maybe more of their contribution. And I know they
often contribute in philanthropy and so on. I know that,
but I'm just curious, what is the balance of willing
to pay more when again, I've had side conversations with
folks are surprised that they aren't pay more in taxes.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So what I've found and for somebody who's upper income
earned income in New York, which is you know, our
biggest taxpayers, we're paying fifty five percent of our income
to the federal, state and city government with you all
in so we're paying more more than half my paycheck
goes to the federal government. So it's not like we're
(08:17):
getting away with something for the very wealthy who are
capital gains, et cetera. The big problem there is if
they move their legal residents out of New York City,
we don't get we don't share or get taxes. They
aren't taxed here on the basis of their global income,
and so we may get their a piece of their paycheck,
(08:40):
but not their wealth, right, And that's a big question.
It is. But what I found is over many years,
when when business leaders and the big taxpayers are at
the table and they see that number one government is
doing what they can to figure out how do we
offer the most efficient, the most effective services at the
(09:02):
lowest cost possible. How do we make government more efficient?
On the one hand, then so then you begin to narrow,
so what's the delta in terms of what what do
we need to raise revenues for? So, for example, when
Dick Ravage in two thousand and seven, for Governor Patterson
led the effort to figure out how are we going
(09:24):
to pay to upgrade our subways which were falling apart,
we supported and the business community supported creating a payroll
mobility tax, where a portion of payrolls of corporations employers
who were in the metropolitan region would go to that
eighty two percent of the employees who work for our
companies based in Manhattan take the public transit to get here.
(09:47):
That was something everybody signed off on we supported. We
supported an increase in that tax twice. Same thing with
congestion pricing. We supported congestion pricing. Obviously a user fee
where you get something reduced congestion more time in your day,
is easier to sell, so it is not. And actually,
(10:07):
when Mike Bloomberg was elected mayor right after nine to eleven,
the city had to raise real estate taxes in order
to rebuild and recover from the nine to eleven shot.
We supported that eighteen percent tax increase in real estate taxes.
So it's not that we're anti all taxes. Is government
doing what they can to keep costs down, to be
(10:29):
responsible in what they're spending. And then what is the
contribution and how do we make it that makes the
most sense, gets the most bang for the buck.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Just very briefly, because you spent such a big part
of your career working on affordable housing, I'm wondering if
the mayor is sticking to freezing rent as his solution
for affordability, because not one person that we have spoken
to over the last few months thinks that not increasing
supply and rather freezing rent is the right way to
(10:58):
approach the affordability crisis with housing.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Well, the new mayor is very well aware that those
are not mutually exclusive options and that if there's no
economic return, nobody's going to build housing. He's figured that out,
so he has He has said really since pre primary
that he understood the private sector had an important role
in the supply side, and he was going to work
(11:22):
on that. So I think that again his view is
much more nuanced when he says now when he talks
about freezing the rent, he says, and one thing that
will enable us to do that is if we do
reduce property taxes on rent stabilized regulated buildings. So he
gets it. He can add and subtract.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
So can you come back, I.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Said, you said, we had an hour, had an hour
hour's worth of question, barely service.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
But we still appreciate Kathy, Thank you, good luck, Thank
having Kathy Wilde, President and CEO of Going, President and
CEO of the Partnership for New York City, part of
the transition team of the New York City Mayor elect,
and of course, our Bloomberg senior reporter Miles Miller
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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