By James DeWeese
Although Miller praised the Republican incumbent for public safety advances under his administration, including an historic drop in the city's murder rate, the Manhattan Democrat told members of the Jackson Heights-based Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens that the mayor had repeatedly come down on the wrong side of the social and economic issues that affect all New Yorkers.”This is a mayor who has made the wrong choices time and time again,” Miller said at the meeting, where he received a ringing endorsement from City Council Finance Committee Chairman David Weprin (D-Hollis). Miller pledged his continued support for same-sex unions, vowing to pursue legislation at the city and state level that would guarantee equal rights to homosexual couples. Miller said he has been on the record as supporting gay rights since he first ran for the City Council in 1996 and offered a series of laws passed over mayoral vetoes aimed protecting equal rights and benefits for same-sex partners.After four years of relative silence on the issue, Bloomberg said he personally supported marriage for same-sex couples but would instruct city lawyers to appeal a State Supreme Court ruling that would have required New York City to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of lingering legal uncertainty.Miller said the mayor's plan to spend public dollars on a controversial West Side stadium for the New York Jets and the 2012 Olympics demonstrated a lack of commitment to meaningful educational reform, which he said should focus all efforts on on new school construction, smaller class sizes and attracting more qualified teachers.The council speaker also said he was “not a terribly big fan” of the mayor's $400 property tax rebate, which has proved popular among many Queens homeowners.”On the one hand, he gives you a check and on the other he raises the assessments through the roof,” Miller said. “It's really sort of a shell game.” He added that he believed real estate taxes should be adjusted to create more equity between the fiscal burden on co-op owners and single-family home owners.Miller also blamed Bloomberg for failing to stand up to Albany and Washington. He said the gap between the amount of tax revenue New York pays to the state and federal governments and what it receives back had grown to $24 billion annually, up from $20 billion when the mayor took office. “We are the most powerful city in the world and we're treating ourselves like we're powerless,” Miller said. If elected, Miller said he would work to encourage New York's business community and political donors to flex their muscles by withholding contributions to candidates who did not tend to the Big Apple's needs on education and anti-terror funding.Miller's address followed a February speech to the club by former Bronx Borough President and mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, whom he trailed by a wide margin in the most recent polls on the primary. Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields and U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens), both likely Democratic challengers, also are slated to visit the club in upcoming months.Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
