Report: NYC Fewest Murders in 40 Years

Should Giuliani take credit for this too? If asked, I'm sure he will say something to the effect that he created the foundation for the continued drop in crime in New York. Nonsense. You still have people insisting that the booming economy of the 90's and and much of 2000s can be attributed to Ronald Reagan. Or should the current Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, consider running, as has been rumored. My understanding is they don't get along. New York isn't big enough for two egos like that of Giuliani and Bloomberg:

The city is on track to have fewer than 500 murders in 2007, the lowest amount in a 12-month period in more than 40 years, according to a published report Thursday.

There were 428 murders recorded as of Sunday - 412 killings and 16 crime victims who died from injuries suffered years ago, The New York Times reported on its Web site. That makes the city's average slightly more than one per day.

Last year, the city reported 579 homicides through Dec. 24 - a nearly 10 percent increase from the year before.

The city's homicide rate reached an all-time high of 2,245 in 1990, making it the murder capital of the nation. Since then, the rate has plummeted to levels not seen since the 1960s. There were 570 homicides in 2004, dropping to 539 in 2005.

If Giuliani takes credit for the current drop in crime it won't be the first time he takes credit where credit is not due:

On taxes, independent analysts say Giuliani's tax cuts were actually lower, about $5.8 billion, rather than the $9 billion he claims. The independent analysis was done by the city's Citizens Budget Commission. The discrepancy is because the commission credits state lawmakers, not Giuliani, with an income tax reduction. Giuliani aides say that's silly and that he lobbied hard for the cut.

During Giuliani's two terms as mayor, the city cut taxes by 7 percent or 8 percent, according to the commission and the city's Independent Budget Office. Giuliani reduced income taxes, sales taxes, hotel taxes, commercial rent taxes and co-op and condo taxes, among others.

For managing that in liberal New York, Giuliani gets high marks from the anti-tax group Club for Growth. Yet the group faults him on several fronts, including his resistance to eliminating commercial rent taxes in 1999 in favor of spending the revenues on new baseball stadiums and his opposition in 1996 to a flat tax, which he now says would make sense.

The city was, indeed, operating in the red when Giuliani became mayor. Yet critics note he left the city with a deficit bigger than the $2.3 billion budget gap he inherited.

Welfare rolls under Giuliani shrank by about 52 percent — from more than 1 million to 516,000, according to federal and city figures — as Giuliani helped tie public assistance to work, requiring people to work in community service jobs in exchange for welfare benefits.

Yet New York fell behind a national welfare decline of 62 percent.

And while crime under Giuliani dropped a dramatic 60 percent — aided by a "zero tolerance" policy that rid the city of squeegee men — it was no longer at record levels. In fact, crime in New York peaked in 1990 and had been dropping for three years when Giuliani arrived, according to FBI statistics.

It is this mental lapse that might explain why Giuliani's poll numbers are dropping in Iowa:

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll of likely Republican caucus-goers finds pro-abortion ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani falling to fourth while former governors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee lead the field. The survey also shows that 75 percent of Republicans in Iowa want all or most abortions made illegal.