Thompson Scolds Bloomberg For Being Against Temp PIT Increase

Shared responsibility shouldn't just be for the state, it must happen on the local and federal level as well. While the Senate is busy mudding the intent of Obama's stimulus plan, we here in New York City have to take care of business in our own backyard. Hardly any other city in America has as much income disparity than NYC does, and in these tough times, leaning on those that are well off so that the last amongst us do not have to suffer anymore than they have to is good thing, from a moral and economic standpoint. However, our billionaire Mayor does not want to increase taxes for the very rich. Well, Mayoral candidate and City Comptroller Bill Thompson had some words for him about that.

From Thompson's website:

"Mayor Bloomberg's budget plan is as out-of-touch as it gets," Thompson wrote. "He plans to fix our budget crisis by raising sales taxes - burdening families and small businesses struggling to make ends meet."

"I stand with President Barack Obama and his call for shared responsibility. That's why I've proposed an increase in the city's personal income tax that focuses on taxpayers whose income exceeds $500,000 annually. As our economy recovers, this increase could sunset and return to current levels."

"While his extravagant campaign signals its willingness to spend $100 million to win a third term, Mayor Bloomberg is demanding to balance the budget on the backs of working people. Stand with me to ensure this doesn't happen."

Bloomberg is and has been seriously out of touch with the needs of New Yorkers. Now I can't say for sure that Thompson is the best candidate for Mayor at this time, he is definitely leaps and bounds ahead of Bloomberg. Mayor Mike doesn't want to increase income taxes and prefers to cut services and jobs, exactly the opposite of what our city needs. And with those tens of millions he'll spend on his campaign, he'll be spouting (last two paragraphs) tired, old and discredited right wing talking points about how increased income taxes will drive away the rich.

New York, like what we did for the Presidential race last year by demanding change, we need to do the same here at home, and change the priorities of our city's government so that we actually decrease the gap between the rich and the poor.

Court Gives Bloomberg Green Light To Run For 3rd Term

In not so unexpected news, Judge Charles Sifton in Brooklyn denied the plantiffs from overturning the Mayor and Council's decision to extend term limits. It was a slim chance that New Yorkers would be given the right decision here, so it is on to the next battle.

From The Daily Politics:

US District Court Judge Charles Sifton has rejected a legal challenge to the term limits extension sought and signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg, agreeing with the city's argument that opponents of the change will have the ability to demonstrate their displeasure at the voting booth.

"To permit this particular group of legislators and city officials to run for re-election and thereby offer the voters the chance to select seasoned leaders at a time when the economic position of the city must be dealt with serves a legitimate government purpose," Sifton wrote.

"Because no fundamental right was infringed, and because the term limits amendment bears a rational relationship to a legimtiate government purpose, no reasonable fact finder could conclude the defendants had violated plaintiffs' substantive due process rights."

Sifton also found "no admissable evidence" to support the claim that there was a quid-pro-quo between Bloomberg and Ron Lauder, in which Lauder was promised a seat on the next Charter Review Commission that would review whether term limits should be permanently extended in exchange for his support of letting the current crop of elected officials seek a another four-year term.

So there could be an appeal, there could be a fight with the Federal authorities at DoJ (most likely in Obama's Administration by the looks of things) or we could just go straight to city politics and like the Judge said, let the voters decide in the ballot box. Chances are electoral politics is going to be where the deal is done. No matter how much mayoral candidates gripe and stand tall in front of the court, they'll have to take the Mayor down the old fashioned way.

Sadly though, the Judge, in my view is wrong that a fundamental right was infringed upon. His decision sounds a lot like Bloomberg's take on it, basically, if people have a problem with what I did, vote me out. However, the people had clearly expressed their intent about term limits....twice. No matter how you feel about the theoretical side of things, the intent of New York voters was firm. Yet Bloomberg and 29 CMs went along with him anyway for their own personal gain. That intent is there for anyone to see, whether they choose to accept the reality of the situation is another.

Weiner To Thompson, Show Me Your Ideas And I'll Show You Mine

No, that isn't a direct quote but merely the jist of what Congressman Weiner said to address a question about his Democratic competition for this year's Mayoral race, City Comptroller Bill Thompson. So far, besides the controversial vehicle registration tax from Thompson, we haven't seen many ideas as of yet from either of them. One thing is for sure though, they'd both be welcome changes from the incumbent.

So Much For Thompson's Driver's License Plan

The budget deficit for the MTA's budget is steadily growing larger, but the plan to help solve the flailing in the air. The MTA proposed to cut service and increase the fare, which sucked. The Ravitch Commission offered to put tolls on the bridges and raise taxes from businesses in the area. Then Comptroller and official Mayoral candidate William Thompson came up with a plan to increase driver's license fees. The only problem though, is that Thompson and his ally in the Assembly, Micah Kellner, didn't do their math correctly for the public.

From Second Avenue Sagas:

Right now, those of us with New York State drivers licenses pay, more or less, around $50 once every eight years to renew our licenses. It was my understanding that this alternate plan would simply raise this rate to $100 every eight years. The way I figured it, this new fee would generate an additional $42 million a year and not the promise $300 million Kellner and Thompson had noted.

The catch, you see, is that Kellner and Thompson would charge New Yorkers that $50 fee every year. Instead of paying $50 for eight years, we would instead be paying $400 extra over that eight-year period to enjoy the privileges and benefits of having a drivers license no matter how little or how much we drive.

And of course that means that everyone gets charged (those with licenses) no matter how much you drive and whether you use the bridges or not. So at least the tolls are part of a usage program where Thompson wants it across the board. It isn't exactly a fair proposal and the way it was presented hinted that it doubled the fee, not 8x. As SAS says, this proposal is bogus, I agree.

Thompson Wants To Save Straphangers With Vehicle Tax

City Comptroller and candidate (not official yet of course) for Mayor Bill Thompson added a new idea to the mix on how to save the troubled M.T.A. from its hard times. Instead of cutting services and jobs, he wants to throw the burden onto those that drive into and around the city. Unlike the current Mayor though, he isn't even mentioning the words "congestion pricing" in his plan.

From The NY Daily News:

Thompson's plan would stick all metro-area car owners with supersized-vehicle use taxes based on the weight of their car.

The sliding-scale tax would be in addition to the sliding-scale, weight-based state registration fee they already pay every two years. That means about $200 extra for cars and $400 or more for heavyweights like SUVs.

"We need to assure that all those who benefit from a healthy transit system will pay their fair share," said Thompson, noting that transit ridership reduces congestion.

Thompson's proposed tax would affect all 12 counties of the so-called Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District served by the MTA - and raise as much as $1.8 billion annually, he said Sunday.

Well first off this is much better than cutting service and hiking the fair by fifty cents or a dollar. The only question is will all of that money go directly towards running the M.T.A.? While the DN only interviews two drivers that sound supportive, many other car owners will not be as thrilled. At least for Thompson he only has to deal with voters in five of those counties and most of the upset New Yorkers will be in the outer boroughs. With that said, if certain guarantees could be made for that money, then eventually more people will be accepting of the raised fees.

For far too long we've put more money into the transit authority without seeing much improvement. Their current proposal makes us pay more to get less, so Thompson at least shifts the burden from those that use mass transit. For the money though, the M.T.A. has to get serious about their finances and run their operation with much less fat. They can toss the public relations team for starters. I do not want to hear how good they're doing with little messages about the 2nd Avenue line and how fares in 1986 weren't that much different than now. Save that space for advertisers. Don't tell us about good things, show us damnit!

Yankees Cheated NYC Out Of $11 Million

Eleven million dollars isn't really that much when you consider the billion dollar plus public financing of the new Yankee Stadium. Still, it was discovered that they improperly deducted expenses from their rent and are finally paying it back. I know most New Yorkers love the team, but the management of the ballclub is absolutely despicable.

From NY1:

The city comptroller's office said today that the Yankees improperly deducted more than $11 million from its annual rent bill for Yankee Stadium between 2003 and 2006.

An audit by Comptroller Bill Thompson finds the Bronx Bombers overstated expenses by more than $24 million, allowing the team to underpay its rent.

Thompson also says the Yanks deducted nearly $10 million in 2006 for planning costs for the new stadium, after claiming those deductions in previous years.

The comptroller says the team has agreed to pay it all back with interest.

How sad that even with all the perks they get from the city, the front office feels that they can abuse the taxpayers that come to watch their games (for ridiculous ticket prices too). It is nice that they are paying it back with interest, but only because Thompson's office audited them. It isn't like the fessed' up to it or anything. Now I'm waiting for Bloomberg to address the issue and punish Steinbrenner's crew, but I won't hold my breath.

Council Speaker's Phantom Groups Go Beyond Quinn's Office

It is now a little more than a day since the story broke about the phantom groups in the City Council Speaker's budget that went to "other" causes (such as those people that do what the Speaker's office wants them to). Quinn claims to have only found out recently and that the people in her office who utilized the slush fund were fired months ago. Somehow though there is no paper trail of her documenting them being fired for these acts, so we have no idea why they left. Nevertheless, some blame lies on Speaker/Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn for not inspecting her budget more thoroughly. Then again, there is blame to spread on to another candidate for Mayor, Comptroller William Thompson.

From The NY Sun:

Mr. Thompson, who is running for mayor, said in a statement that the allegations against budget practices of the council raise serious concerns.

"If there were any attempts to subvert the New York City Charter or to hide money in non-existent organizations, these actions would represent a breach of the public trust," he said. His spokesman could not be reached for comment about the damage the disclosure may have on Mr. Thompson's political future.

A former parks commissioner who is the director of New York Civic, Henry Stern, said the budget accounting practice implicates officials outside the council as well as in, and is "totally wrong." "He's in his seventh year as comptroller. She's only in her third year as speaker," he said, referring to Mr. Thompson and Ms. Quinn. "All these books are in print, how come the comptroller didn't know anything about it? It's their job to audit all these city agencies. I think although it's primarily the speaker's fault, we should look closely at what the comptroller knew and when he knew it."

Stern makes a very good point. Why didn't Thompson catch this? For that matter, what about the Comptrollers before him and the same goes for all of the Speakers from Peter Vallone to Christine Quinn. This lack of accountability goes across the city's political spectrum and this is just one instance of corruption. Now two candidates for Mayor are being fingered in this story, and their credibility, even this far out is going to be tarnished. Criminal charges should be coming soon, but we'll see if the law or the public will have the greatest effect on their political and legal futures.

Same-Sex Marriage...It's Good For The Economy

If you aren't convinced that same-sex marriage should be legalized for the obvious reasons (equality, liberty for all, compassion for people no matter what their differences, etc) the City Comptroller has another one for you. It's the money. NYC Comptroller William Thompson argued today in support of legalizing same-sex marriages because it is good for the economy. Just how good is it Mr Thompson?

From WNYC:

NEW YORK, NY June 05, 2007 —Weddings are a multi billion dollar industry - millions of which are spent here in New York. City Comptroller William Thompson used that argument today to say same-sex marriage would be good for the state economy and to urge state legislators to act on a languishing bill.

REPORTER: Thompson estimates that in the first three years of allowing gay marriage the city would attract an additional $142 million in wedding spending.

THOMPSON: The economic benefits would be derived primarily from wedding related spending by residents and visitors along with spending by their out of town visitors and guests.

So forget about the moral imperative to achieve equality for all Americans. If you don't care about people's moral right to try and be happy with someone they love then focus on the money. Crain's New York Business has more statistics about the matter. New York's economy is already booming largely due to soaring real estate prices, so why not tack on a few million that helps expand the marriage business?