Good Cop, Bad Cop

The notion that Mayor Bloomberg is going to be able to walk in and just jerk everyone's property tax up without so much as a peep from the City Council is fading quickly. Yesterday the New York Post quoted one council member, Simcha Felder, as saying he wouldn't vote to raise the property tax unless the state was also going to authorize an increase in the commuter tax. As the Councilman put it: "Why should all the residents be penalized before the foreigners are?" Putting it in somewhat less chauvinistic terms to the Post was a Staten Island Democrat, Michael McMahon, who said, "I'm opposed to using the property tax to solve this fiscal crisis … The mayor has known about this situation since he took office. It's unfair to the middle class."

Meantime, our Wm. F. Hammond Jr. reports at page 1 of today's New York Sun that trouble over fiscal matters is brewing between Mr. Bloomberg and Governor Pataki. The governor's handlers are growing annoyed that hizzoner is talking about tax hikes two weeks before elections. The sense one gets is that the governor will be happy to raise taxes, so long as he doesn't have to do it before November 5. And even after election day, there are signs the governor will be of little help to the city. The state, after all, has its own budget deficit of about $10 billion. It can hardly afford to send more cash the city's way. Even if the always astute Hank Sheinkopf is correct that the mayor and the governor are playing a game of good cop/bad cop — with bad cop Bloomberg proposing tax increases and new bridge tolls and good cop Pataki swatting them down — that doesn't mean that Mr. Pataki is any more likely to come around on these issues after election day.