Friday, June 8, 2007

CITY BUDGET: AL D’AMATO'S PERSONAL COOKIE JAR


THE NYC OTB approved the hiring of former Senator Alphonse D’mato as a lobbyist for $15,000 a month. What a joke. They already have a lobbyist; they are an arm of NYC and they do not have enough cash to pay their current liabilities. Why does an affiliate organization of NYC have to hire an outside lobbyist to get things done in Albany. It is a sorry state of affairs when an organization set up by the government to benefit the government needs an outside lobbyist to get the government to approve changes to keep them from going bankrupt.

This Mayor has money for any development large or small (Atlantic yards, the #7 train, Yankee and Shea Stadium) but no money to give police officers a decent wage or to provide tax relief for the hundreds of thousand NYC residents who pay income tax to NYC but are exempt from taxes by NYS and the federal government. How can this be you ask? This is because the City is the stingiest when offering the benefits of the earned income tax credit to its constituents. As a result those with low income are exempt from federal and state taxes but must pay a tax to NYC. Tax breaks for millionaire developers but tax bills for poor people. The Earned Income tax Credit is known as the largest anti-poverty program ever in the U.S but NYC can offer no more than 5% of the credit for its residents that qualify. And how about the seniors who own homes and must pay property taxes but only have fixed incomes (social security)? Their property taxes are going up because assessments are going up not to mention the 18.5% tax increase Bloomberg added four years ago and yet the City squirrels away billions of dollars in case something bad happens and our seniors have less to live on.

It is obvious to me the Billionaire Mayor has total disregard for the poor.

1 comment:

mythsmasher said...

Libertarians say "Separate sports and state." Sell OTB and abolish its monopoly.

And boot parasites like Al D'Amato.

Richard Cooper, former Chair
Libertarian Party of New York
www.ny.lp.org

Blogging at www.mythsmasher.blogspot.com