Thursday, November 20, 2008

Laws Won't Get In Bloomberg's Way

We've already seen the Mayor punch a large gaping wound in our democracy to let him run for another term, so why not ignore more laws? Michael Bloomberg's ego isn't letting him back away from his pledge to rescind the property tax rebate so fast. He recommended it as a part of cutting the city's budget, but found out that it wasn't really his decision to axe that check from those that own property in NYC, especially for those that regard $400 as a nice chunk of change for the holidays.

From The NY Times:

After being dealt a rare public embarrassment by the City Council, which forced his administration to acknowledge on Monday that he was legally required to send out $400 rebate checks promised to hundreds of thousands of New York homeowners, a defiant Mr. Bloomberg said on Wednesday that he had no plans to release the money.

At a news conference, Mr. Bloomberg described the rebates as “up in the air.” Asked what he would tell homeowners who have been depending on the money to pay bills or buy holiday gifts, he responded: “Plan for the worst, and hope for the best.”

When pressed, the mayor said: “I just answered your question. You just don’t want the answer.”
That my fellow New Yorkers, is your callous, obnoxious and dare I say, Mr. Grinch of a Mayor. You can find four hundred bucks under the cushions of Bloomberg's couch, but for the great majority of us that is a lot of money and he clearly showed he is deeply out of touch with this city. We as a city are not simply all those that live around Central Park Mr Mayor. If the new term limits law is here to stay for now, the Mayor can expect to hear it from those he thinks he pulled one over on, from now until election day.