Say you do not like it, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg told you so. When he first said the city could not make good on the promise to send out the $400 rebate checks to homeowners, the public was up in arms.
He explained that if the city sent out the checks, he would have to raise property taxes. Now that the checks have arrived, people are beginning to realize that a 7 percent hike in property taxes will come out to more than $400.
But in truth, the mayor did exactly what he said he was going to do. Nearly every state and every city in America is facing a financial crisis. But the recession has hit the city like a ton of bricks. The Wall Street collapse and loss of thousands of high−paying jobs have had a tremendous impact on revenues. Not sending the rebate checks would have saved the city $256 million.
Nevertheless, the City Council pressured City Hall to send out the checks. Some Council members even suggested that the mayor was legally obligated to follow through on the rebates. Council members and community leaders were angry about the delay. They argued that residents had included the rebate in their annual budgets.
