Miller’s Nest Egg
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A letter in the adjacent columns from an aide to the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, takes issue with an editorial in Tuesday’s New York Sun. The editorial said,”with the Council’s budget proposal released yesterday, Mr. Miller disclosed himself as a true taxer and spender. The council budget would tax commuters $1.1 billion a year. And it would spend $581 million more than Mr. Bloomberg has proposed.” Mr. Miller’s aide says “The Council’s budget calls for $332 million in additional spending.” What about the rest of the extra money — hundreds of millions of it? The aide says it would be used “to establish a Rainy Day Fund.”
Well, we don’t see where it matters what the weather is like when the money is finally spent. The point is that to taxpayers it doesn’t really make much difference whether the money the city extracts from taxpayers is used to pay employees, accumulated in a surplus, or spent during a drizzle. The fact remains that Mayor Bloomberg’s budget would leave hundreds of millions more in taxpayers’ pockets than would be the case with Mr. Miller’s spending binge.
The letter from the Miller aide mentions $344 million in tax cuts, but it doesn’t mention the $1.1 billion tax increase that Mr. Miller is also proposing. That nets out to a huge tax increase on workers in a city and state where the combined state and local tax burden is already the highest in the nation.
In a roundup yesterday, the Sun asked a range of New Yorkers why the city’s economy shrank last year at a time when the national economy was growing. The president of the Central Labor Council, Brian McLaughlin, spoke of “our stifling tax burden that makes New York an exceptionally expensive place to live, work, and do business.” Bank of America’s Mickey Levy spoke of “onerous tax burdens.” The city comptroller, William Thompson, said a factor was that “New York City had to raise taxes, resulting in less consumer spending.”
Mr. Miller wants to raise taxes, raise spending, and have a government rainy-day fund. We’d prefer cutting taxes and cutting spending so that some of the city’s hard-pressed taxpayers can have their own rainy-day funds. Here’s hoping that’s Mr. Bloomberg stands his ground in this budget battle with the council speaker.
