Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Deirdra L. Picou (212) 788-2971
"It's a pleasure to join all of you for your annual meeting, and I am happy to have this opportunity to speak to a group that represents 100,000 hard working men and women form the Greater New York area," Mayor Giuliani said. "The future of New York City is our shared concern. All of us have a stake in the continued viability of the local economy and the ongoing enhancement of the quality of life the five boroughs."
Mayor Giuliani said, "One thing is very clear: In the past two and a half years New York City has changed direction. There is a new sense of optimism in the neighborhoods of New York City -- a sense of confidence. Instead of seeing businesses leaving, we are not only retaining businesses we're getting new businesses coming to the City and new private sector capital investment --- and all of that comes down to one thing: jobs and paychecks for New Yorkers who need them."
"My administration has been working to revolutionize the attitude of New York City government toward business," said Mayor Giuliani. "One of my top priorities has been the development and retention of real private sector jobs --- and to accomplish this we have worked to foster a pro-business environment in our City."
"Three years ago we had gone through a four-year period in which we lost 400,000 private sector jobs. We believed there were things the City was doing wrong. And we changed them. We reduced the hotel occupancy tax, and eliminated the commercial rent tax in four-fifths of the City, and we used our economic development program to retain our major employers" said Mayor Giuliani.
"We stopped the flow of jobs leaving the City of New York. We've signed seventeen retention agreements with major employers, retaining more than 45,000 jobs, and we've actually seen the first private sector job growth in the City since the late 1980's with more than 85,000 jobs," said Mayor Giuliani.
Mayor Giuliani concluded, "Looking ahead, I see a City with booming tourism, safer streets and more jobs. I see a City with public/private partnerships leading the way to solving even our toughest problems. And as all this new opportunity and new development takes place, I see groups like the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York partnering with City government in planning, development, and execution of our strategies, and helping us lead the way towards a bright future for ourselves and our children."