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Mayor Bloomberg headed to Albany to criticize Governor Spitzer's new budget, accusing him of going beyond nickel and diming the city. Spitzer has proposed cutting over $300 million in municipal aid to the city, and while it doesn't sound like a lot in a time of multi-billion dollar surplus, here's an explanation of the municipal aid program from the NY Times:
Mr. Bloomberg saved his strongest criticism for Mr. Spitzer’s plan to eliminate the city’s share of a state program called Aid and Incentives to Municipalities, which provides the city with $327.9 million in unrestricted aid each year...The city has received the aid since 1946 and sees it as particularly valuable because it is steady from year to year — unlike property tax receipts, the city’s main source of revenue..Aha! The Mayor pointed out that the $660 million "is roughly equivalent to the combined annual budgets of the City's Department of Parks and Recreation, Department for the Aging and Department of Juvenile Justice, all put together." Bloomberg questioned that once the aid is gone, there's no guarantee it'll ever come back.Because the aid to municipalities is disbursed toward the end of each calendar year, for the city fiscal year that ended the previous June 30, the reduction would amount to a one-time hit of about $660 million, the mayor said — $327.9 million for the current fiscal year and $327.9 million for the next.
The Mayor repeated a refrain we happen to like: That the city contributes $11 billion more to the state than it receives back. In his remarks, Bloomberg said to the State finance committee, "I ask you to bear in mind that New York City is the economic engine of the entire Empire State. We all have a strong interest in keeping that engine running smoothly."
Governor Spitzer said the city is still coming out better with his budget, but we'll side with the Mayor on this one. You can read the Mayor's entire testimony here. And, per the Sun, Mayor Bloomberg also joked (we think), "Eliot lives about three doors from where I live, so I can always have somebody give him a parking ticket if he doesn't treat us well."
Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg greeting NY Senate finance committee chair Owen Johnson in Albany yesterday by Tim Roske/AP
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Bloomberg is a HYPOCRITE with a capital H. Bloomberg has cut more city programs than most people realize, probably because people have been lulled to sleep by Bloomberg's intensive advertising and PR push in 2005.
Spitzer is from NYC, so he isn't as distant as Bloomberg is making him out to be.
Interestingly, Bloomberg was mouse-quiet when Pataki screwed NYC year in and year out (the education fiasco, anyone?).
Democrats who voted for Bloomberg: aren't you glad you voted Republican?
NYC needs to suceed from NYS and become a seperate state.
And, per the Sun, Mayor Bloomberg also joked (we think), "Eliot lives about three doors from where I live, so I can always have somebody give him a parking ticket if he doesn't treat us well."
He'll make Spitzer an offer he can't refuse.
And Pete needs to learn to spell.
But seriously, considering the screw job New York City bankers and lawyers give to the rest of the country, paying more in taxes is your duty AS DEMOCRATS. Anyway, it isn't your tax surplus. It's Goldman Sachs's.
Essentially you are condoning when some New York douche from a private equity firm buys out a company, loads it up with debt, and fires half the employees and moves production to China. Are you still proud of your city's "record" as the engine of growth?
Perhaps the Mayor can ticket the many black SUV's the Governor leaves idling 24/7 on Fifth Ave.
They have our water. They win.
The "OMG WE SEND THEM MONEY" argument is stupid. Like 14 million of the 19 million people who live in the state live either in the city or on Long Island. When you have 3/4ths of the population, you pay 3/4ths of the taxes.
Bloomberg does not care!
That's what you get for electing billionaires into politics.
And don't tell me bout the altruistic things they do, they do that because they have so much money and are so bored, they gotta do something.
But in the end, they don't care because they don't see the suffering first hand. but it will come back in karma.
His daughter will have a serious injury from riding her horse.
They have our water. They win.
And our landfills (upstate, Virginia, North Carolina!). And our ports (Jersey). And our electrical generating capacity (everywhere but a few gas fired plants in queens and brooklyn). You thought people were cranky during the MTA strike?