Thompson Claims There Is Money for Rebate Checks

City Comptroller and mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson has stepped into the simmering debate over the $400 property rebate checks. Mayor Bloomberg has said the city doesn't have the $256 million it costs to send them to homeowners this year, but Thompson tells the Post, "The money is there. It only requires creativity, thoughtfulness and a consideration that budget cuts should not disproportionately affect New Yorkers." In the mean time, Mayor Bloomberg is trying to assure New Yorkers he'd love to send them the check--"There’s nobody who would like to send a check to every homeowner in this city more than me"--but some City Council members believe he'll use the issue as a bargaining chip during budget negotiations.

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By Jen Chung in News on November 21, 2008 10:56 AM

Comments [rss]

Future Taliban

These are the A-holes you people keep putting into office over and over again. ANd over again. And when they max out their terms you let them change the rules and do it AGAIN.

And that my friends is known as MASOCHISM.

Enjoy.

Toby von Meistersinger

Of course Bill Thompson would say such a thing, as he is running for mayor.

Derekasaurus

I don't mean to nitpick, but Mayor Bloomberg has said the city doesn't how the $256 million it costs to send them? It's not like these posts are epic tomes that are impossible to proofread. As a long-time reader I notice similar mistakes several times a week.

kissel

JMH, maybe but that's what got us to this state in the first place. They need to get the budget back under control. Somehow Bloomberg has increased NYC's spending by 50% over his tenure (probably riding high on wall street and real estate transaction taxes) but now that these are gone he's looking to us to make up the difference - by both income and property tax increases. Some business minded leader we have... I can't believe he is selling himself as the only one that can get us out of this mess!

The city ran fine or better -50% ago, so I think there is a lot that can be cut before they take more out of my income - I cant even afford any more if I wanted.

JMH

Don't care. There are better things that can be done with that money.

kissel

Great points, felixthecat. These politicians like to wrangle about these points, solely to avoid the bigger picture problem. They do things like cutting small offshoots of child or elder care just to get the big news headlines of people suffering to make it easier to force more taxes through, just so they can avoid real tough work like reducing the size of the municipal government, getting rid of pet pork projects, reducing payroll costs, removing useless programs. Why bother with any of this when you can just steal more money from your residents pockets. Our system is just incredibly broken. No one wants to do whats best for the city, just whats best for them politically.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

$400 is nothing compare to the slush fund Quinn stole and the lifetime pensions the city council members received for extending their term limits or the all the pork monies, our money, the council members received from the slush funds or the 125k we pay them for a part time job etc.

Stop fighting for $400 and look at the bigger pictures. Get rid of the borough presidents office and make council members work full time or reduce their pay. p.s. quinn voted herself a 25% pay tax hike.