Mayor Boasts of Tax Cuts While Taxes Are Higher Than When He Acceded

Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign claims in a radio advertisement that the mayor has given the families of New York City two years of property tax cuts and a lower sales tax. Despite two years of $400 rebates for most homeowners, property taxes are higher now for many New Yorkers than they were when Mr. Bloomberg took office, and, although the city portion of the sales tax will soon return to its 2002 level, the overall rate is higher than it was when Mr. Bloomberg arrived at City Hall.In the radio spot, heard Friday on 1010 WINS, an announcer tells listeners the mayor’s “economic plan is working” and then details a number of accomplishments. One line is: “And for families, two years of property tax cuts and a lower sales tax.”People who follow the ups and downs of New York’s tax rates said yesterday that the line is misleading – at best.“Factually speaking, the sales tax rate for the city has come back to where it was at the start of the Bloomberg administration, and the city clothing sales tax will be coming back to where it was when he started as of September 1,” the deputy director of the Independent Budget Office, George Sweeting, said. “And the property tax rebate offsets some of the effect of the 18.5% tax increase for homeowners, but depending on the value of the home, it may not fully undo it.”When Mr. Bloomberg took office, New York City shoppers were paying a sales tax of 8.25%, except when purchasing clothing and shoes that cost less than $110. Those items were exempt from state and city taxes.In 2003, the city and state temporarily did away with the clothing and footwear exemption and raised sales tax rates. The state boosted its rate to 4.25% from 4%, and the city raised its rate to 4.125% from 4%. At the time, Mr. Bloomberg pushed for an increase of 0.25%,but the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, balked, and the two agreed on 0.125% – half as much. Counting the pre-existing Metropolitan Transportation Authority surcharge of 0.25%, the total rate climbed to 8.625%.Last month, the city and state rates reverted to 4% each, but the MTA surcharge rose to 0.375%, bringing the sales tax rate to 8.375%, which is 0.125% higher than it was when Mr. Bloomberg took office.Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg stood with a fellow Republican, Governor Pataki, to sign a bill that will bring back the city’s portion of the exemption on clothing and footwear purchases. While the city’s portion of the tax will fall back to 0%, however, the state and MTA taxes will remain in place. That means New Yorkers will still pay 4.375% on clothing purchases, more than they paid when Mr. Bloomberg took office – except during those designated weeks when no sales tax is imposed on clothing purchases.As for property taxes, a year after winning the election, Mr. Bloomberg called for a 25% increase, and he and Mr. Miller soon agreed to an increase of 18.49%, which was fully implemented by July 2003. For the past two years, homeowners have received $400 rebate checks, but commercial landlords and the more than 60% of city residents who rent their homes still feel the full impact of the increase.Politicians to the left and to the right of the mayor on the political spectrum criticized the ad yesterday, but Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign is sticking to its message, saying the mayor was wise to raise rates in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and is now being equally prudent as he cuts taxes.“You took us back to where we were, but it’s still a decrease?” the minority leader of the City Council, James Oddo, said.Mr. Oddo, a Republican of Staten Island, said: “I can put in my campaign literature that I play shortstop and bat leadoff for the Yankees, but that doesn’t make it true. When you add an 18.5% rate increase with the artificial and arbitrary increase in the assessments, there are many people in Staten Island that are paying 25%, 30% more than they once were.”The manager of Mr. Miller’s mayoral campaign, Brian Hardwick, accused Mr. Bloomberg of “trying to remake his record” and said: “Regular New Yorkers know who is responsible for schools that are a mess, subways that don’t work, and the fact that they can’t afford to live here anymore.”The campaign spokesman for Rep. Anthony Weiner, Anson Kaye, said of the mayor: “It sounds like he has to go through some strenuously funny math to support his claims.The facts are that taxes are up under this mayor. I think that if the mayor is going to spend millions of dollars on advertising to educate voters about his record, he should be straight about his record.”A campaign spokeswoman for Fernando Ferrer, Christy Setzer, said, “Mike Bloomberg can try to change the facts by spending tens of millions of dollars on glossy ads, but any New Yorker can tell you that the cost of living is up, and average people are feeling squeezed.”Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign spokesman, Stuart Loeser, said the ad’s reference to a “lower sales tax” referred to the clothing and shoe exemption, which he said helps businesses and working families, while the mention of “property tax cuts” was a reference to the rebates.“It was obvious that after 9/11 we needed sacrifices and belt-tightening, and now he’s lowering taxes back down for middle-class New Yorkers and working families,” Mr. Loeser said. “That’s why we’ve delivered property tax rebates not once but twice for homeowners. That’s why he fought so hard to eliminate the city sales tax on clothes and shoes under $110.”The mayor didn’t include that measure in his preliminary budget; Mr. Miller called for it in April, and Mr. Bloomberg then incorporated it into his executive budget in May. It later was ratified by the state Legislature, but Mr. Pataki and the Legislature retained the state portion of the tax.

Mayor Boasts of Tax Cuts While Taxes Are Higher Than When He Acceded

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