Billionaire Republican donor John Catsimatidis who is a the former mayoral candidate, radio host, supermarket magnate, and the CEO of a refining company made an appearance on this Thursday’s America Reports on Fox not “news” and during a segment where he and host Sandra Smith were sniping at New York Governor Kathy Hochul for the state’s tax policies, and a push to lower the estate tax limits, and made this cruel and completely tone deaf remark about how New York should deal with their homeless problem.
Just send them to Uganda, or wherever.
SMITH: John Catsimatidis made his fortune right here in New York City and is living the American dream. He joins us now. John, good to have you here.
CATSIMATIDIS: Well, if I have to keep my fortune, I have to leave.
SMITH: I mean, what do you say to her?
CATSIMATIDIS: This is a joke. I mean, nobody that’s gone down to Florida is coming back. What was the old expression? Slim and none? I won’t use the third word. Slim and none about people that went to Florida, went to Texas, they’re not coming back.
SMITH: She’s kind of saying the quiet part out loud, right? We just want you back so you can fund our far-left policies in the state.
CATSIMATIDIS: Won’t happen. It won’t never happen. And right now I’m worried about New York because once… they want to lower the estate tax, and I’m over, I’m over a certain age. I’m eligible for estate tax. My kids will hate me if I don’t move to Florida because they want… but they’re punishing not only the rich.
They’re not only punishing the billionaires and the millionaires, they want to reduce the estate tax from seven million down to 750,000. Everybody’s house in New York is worth 750,000. So they want to punish everybody. It just doesn’t work. They don’t realize it.
I should come back so I could feed the migrants?
SMITH: Gotcha. And they want more money for this homeless population that they’re now saying in the city, you just heard it, more per homeless person than the average person makes in a year.
CATSIMATIDIS: Why should we pay that $81,000 I saw on the screen, for a homeless person where they can leave for… live in Uganda for $8.13 a day. We’ll give them the check for $8.13 a day, let them live some place else.
SMITH: It would be one thing if proving that spending all this money would be helping the homeless population get off the streets and get back into work, but there’s no sign of that. In fact, the homeless population is only growing.
Governor Hochul, meanwhile, is taxing, on taxing the rich and the competition that she is in with red states. She said this in Albany, listen.
HOCHUL: So I feel that if we don’t have a problem, it is like I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states that have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals.
Wall Street businesses are looking at Texas. They’re not going there because they have a nicer governor. I know that for sure. But they’re going there because of the tax rate.
SMITH: Lord Almighty. I mean, isn’t that an admission? Senator Ashley Moody from Florida, by the way, she tweeted this out. “Sunshine, beaches, no taxes, freedom, and law and order. Sorry, Kathy, I’ve got bad news for you, they aren’t coming back.”
CATSIMATIDIS: Well, something is everybody has to know. The budget for New York City is $127 billion for 8.5 million people. The budget for the whole state of Florida, with 24 million people, is $119 billion. Where is the money?
That’s why, you know, foreign policy and foreign…, giving away money to… I’d give them money to live in Uganda, the Belgium… you know in Africa or in South America.
Why they can’t live for one tenth the cost?
SMITH: But why is she saying this out loud but not learning anything from it and changing our tax policy in the city to make it more attractive to individuals, to earners, to businesses to be here or want to stay here if they’re still here.
