A Stitch in Haste

Recently I blogged about an obnoxious stunt by Mayor Bloomberg and other NYC hack politicians regarding the allocation of substantial water tax hikes: having an artificially low tax rate increase this (election) year in order to mask far higher increases in subsequent years.

Well, in two days we have had two further examples of this immoral and despicable practice in NYC:

ITEM: What’s one thing at least as important as water?

New Yorkers in more than 1 million rent-stabilized apartments got good news last night from the city Rent Guidelines Board.

The board kicked off the annual battle over rents by proposing a range of modest lease increases that are lower than last year.
...
The entire board is appointed by Mayor Bloomberg and it came as no shock to observers that the proposed increases were relatively low in an election year.
...
"I think historically we see every time that it's an election year the final numbers are always low enough not to excite the masses of tenants," said [Joseph] Strasburg, whose Rent Stabilization Association represents 25,000 landlords.

MY TAKE: I’ll leave to other days and other bloggers the bigger question of rent regulation per se. I just want to highlight the Bloombergian hijinks for now.

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ITEM: What’s another thing at least as important as water?

Amazing things can occur in an election year — even partial repeal of the tax on clothing sales under $110.

Sources said that's what Mayor Bloomberg will propose today when he unveils his executive budget for fiscal 2006. "It's the fairest way of reducing the burden on New Yorkers," said one city official.

The 8.625 percent tax was set to expire last June, before Albany decided to extend it to June 30, 2007, to help balance its budget.

Sources said Bloomberg is going to ask that the city's portion — 4 percent — be yanked this June 1, just five months before Election Day. Albany would have to approve the early repeal.

MY TAKE: What an astounding coincidence that the fiscal chaos of this city happens to recede just at the most politically opportunistic moment for the mayor. Who would have imagined?

I’ll give Bloomberg credit for this much: political "outsider" or not, he sure learned the rules of the fraud game quickly.