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For the second year, Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled the New York City Card, which serves as a list of the qualities he is looking for in any politicians, be they Republicans or Democrats. And therefore, those with the money to put behind politicians can use the card to see if the politician's interests line up with what the city needs.
Bloomberg said, "The City Card is not about conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat - it is about being right for New York City. The City's donor community pumps millions of dollars into political campaigns each year, and the card helps donors understand which politicians support the interests of the City - and which do not." And remember: The city pays $11.1 billion more in State taxes than it gets in State funding and pays $10.9 billion in Federal taxes than it gets in federal funding.
Here's what's on the card:
- Lower Manhattan Tax Trade-In: The City is seeking to trade-in $2 billion in Federal tax credits in exchange for $2 billion in Federal funds for the rail-link between John F. Kennedy Airport and Lower Manhattan - a crucial project for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan.The first two were on the 2006 card (pictured); two things from last year's card, blocking federal eminent domain legislation and raising the State's charter school cap, are considered off the list, thanks to card-members who contacted "key members of the State Legislature and Congress."
- Homeland Security: All federal Homeland Security funding should be allocated based on threat, and not pork barrel politics.
- Competitiveness: Congress must ease the impact of restrictive visa and immigration policies and complex Sarbanes-Oxley regulations in order for New York City to remain the financial capital of the world.
- 9 /11 Worker Health: The City is requesting $150 million in annual federal funding to ensure health treatment and monitoring for all individuals affected by the catastrophic 9/11 terrorist attacks.
- Affordable Housing: State and federal financial incentives need to be expanded as part of the City's largest municipal affordable housing program in the nation's history.
- 2030/Climate Change: As part of the City's plaNYC 2030 long-term sustainability plan - to be released this Sunday - the City is asking the State Legislature to enact legislation that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions; ensure that there is a more reliable, efficient brownfields program; promote the use of mass transit; and ensure that our energy infrastructure meets the City's long-term needs.
The NY Times notes the 2007 version of the card was introduced during a power lunch, which included GOP fund-raiser Georgette Mosbacher, businessmen Leonard Lauder and Sanford Weill, and lobbyist Ben Barnes. And former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who spoke during a panel at the lunch, said, "The survival of New York’s financial district as the leading financial district in the world is important in every town in the United States."
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jus when bloomy finally does something good, like the attempted sting operation in w.virginia, he's gotta do something that makes me scream!
Does anyone know how these tax numbers are calculated? And how the spending numbers are calculated? Is it simply a matter of adding up tax returns and where money is sent?
For example, it would seem to me that any money spent on port security in Newark has a direct benefit for New York. Does anyone bother to estimate the benefit or do they go strictly by where the checks are sent? Money spent on the CDC in Atlanta or the NIH in Maryland are spent on behalf of all Americans. What about military spending? There are no bases in New York City but that money ($500 billion or so) is spent on behalf of everyone. Surely Wall Street benefits from money spent on economic infrastructure like roads and bridges in places far away from the city. If there was not a free movement of goods and capital would it be so easy to make bilions sitting at a desk in New York. How about money spent on upstate prisons hold New York City prisoners. How about the reservoirs? Does any money spent upstate for New York City's drinking water count as spending for the city or spending in the actual place where work was done?
On the revenue side, let's say I own a few shares of ExxonMobil and receive a dividend. None of the economic activity to create that divided took place in New York but I pay taxes on it from here. Would you really call that New York income? If I move across the river to New Jersey do my taxes suddenly become New Jersey taxes?
Anyway, it seems like a meaningless statistic anyway. The whole idea of taxes and government spending is to redistibute money for the greater good. If a certain political party constantly talks about income inequality it is only logical that the rich in New York pay more than they get back. If every locale got back exactly what it put in then there would be no need for a federal government.