Council Passes $50.2 Billion Budget

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The New York Sun

The City Council passed the 2006 budget yesterday during a last-day-of-camp type of meeting before seven members, including the council speaker, Gifford Miller, end their terms.


The city’s $50.2 billion budget, which passed unanimously, is the result of months of negotiations with the Bloomberg administration. It includes hundreds of millions of dollars for new programs, a $400 property-tax rebate, and the elimination of the city’s portion of the sales tax on clothing bought for less than $110.


Much of yesterday’s budget meeting was marked by anger from council members who were dubbed the “trash traitors” after voting this month for Mayor Bloomberg’s preliminary plan to overhaul the way garbage is moved out of the city. Those votes delivered the mayor a victory and embarrassed Mr. Miller, who controls the council purse strings.


Most members who voted with the mayor opened their bound copies of the budget yesterday to find that money for the programs they’d requested funds for was either stricken or slashed.


“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful that members who vote their conscience for what they think may be the appropriate thing for the city of New York get punished in the budget,” a Queens Democrat, Tony Avella, said.


A Bronx Democrat and longtime Miller critic, Madeline Provenzano, called the speaker “an immature person” and said he had no business slashing funds.


“There is much too much pork in this council budget,” she said. “There’s so much pork you can almost hear it oinking.”


A Queens Democrat, John Liu, who is expected to endorse Mr. Miller’s campaign for mayor today, defended the speaker.


“Every year there are bound to be a few crybabies,” he said. “I’ve ordered a bag of lollipops – it’ll be in the members’ lounge.”


If in this year’s budget Mr. Miller for the first time punished colleagues who voted against him, the mayor will apparently be kicking in money for most of the programs that the speaker rebuffed.


While many old and new programs were financed thanks to the city’s $3.3 billion surplus, the new budget does little to address the $4.6 billion budget deficits projected for each of the next three years.


The council’s Republican leader, James Oddo of Staten Island, predicted that city residents would face tax increases next year.


“There is going to be a lot of pain come January,” he said.


“Look out for the following words because they are looming in your headlights: property-tax increase,” he said.


Mr. Oddo was one of only a handful of members who voted against the 18.5% property-tax increase approved in 2002.


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