Paul Ryan de Blasio

Was that our progressive mayor channeling Paul Ryan? At about the same time the GOP chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he is working on a reform of the nation’s business taxes, Bill de Blasio unveiled a “revenueneutral” plan he says will streamline Gotham’s corporate tax code.

Now, many details have yet to be released — and the plan requires Albany’s blessing before it can go into effect. The question is whether Team de Blasio will try to use this plan to pick winners by lowering taxes on some and raising them on others.

Still, reforms that make our taxes simpler and more predictable will make the city more attractive to business and investment.

One good idea by de Blasio, for example, is to make the city’s corporate tax structure conform more closely to the state’s, so that “firms will not need to maintain separate records” for each. Another would merge the city’s tax rate for banks with the corporate franchise tax rate. These are meant to lighten companies’ administrative loads.

Keeping a campaign vow, he’d also cut taxes for small businesses and manufacturers — arguing lower taxes will “keep jobs here and expand economic opportunity.”

In sum, Mayor de Blasio seems to be committing himself to streamlining an overly burdensome and hostile city tax regime. In so doing, he has also acknowledged the connection between a city’s tax regime and jobs and economic growth.

But if this connection is as true as the mayor says, why not go all the way and call for major, broadbased relief from a personal-income-tax system that is one of the nation’s most punishing?