CITYWIDE

SALES TAX DROPS A QUARTER OF A PERCENTAGE POINT

You wouldn’t know it unless you bought a yacht yesterday, but New York City sales tax dropped a quarter of a percentage point.

The decrease to 8.375% from 8.625% marks the end of the temporary tax hike implemented two years ago during tough economic times for the city. But because of a special new sales tax being added to aid the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the reduction is 0.125 more than it could have been, which has been a point of contention among state and city politicians. Shoppers in New York will save a quarter on every $100 they spend under the new sales tax.

– Special to the Sun

FERRER GETS ENDORSEMENT FROM FERRARO

Democratic mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer was endorsed by former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro yesterday, with Mr. Ferrer framing the nod as backing from a “national Democratic leader” and a fellow child of the South Bronx. Ms. Ferraro also endorsed Mr. Ferrer in the 2001 mayoral race.

Edged out of City Hall by thousands of firefighters gathered there for medal day ceremonies, Mr. Ferrer and Ms. Ferraro staged their press conference across from the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, where the former congresswoman from Queens and the former Bronx borough president played the city’s schools as the top issue in this year’s race. In addition to Mr. Ferrer’s record on education, Ms. Ferraro said, she was backing him for his positions on “affordable housing” and because he was a longtime friend.

While expressing confidence that Mr. Ferrer would make an excellent mayor, Ms. Ferraro would not criticize the current officeholder, except to say that she thought Mayor Bloomberg had not fought hard enough for the city in Washington. Ms. Ferraro said she would reach out to women voters on behalf of Mr. Ferrer and would campaign for him as much as her health permitted. Ms. Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood, in 1998.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CLINTON SAYS HE FEELS ‘REALLY GOOD’ BUT NOT COMPLETELY RECOVERED

President Clinton, who underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery in September and a follow-up procedure in March, said yesterday he feels “really good” but doesn’t think he has completely recovered.

On Saturday, Mr. Clinton canceled part of a planned tour of tsunami-hit areas of the Maldives. A tour official said Mr. Clinton scrapped the visit because he was exhausted; on Monday, the former president blamed bad weather.

“I think most normal people would’ve been tired after” the visit to several parts of the tsunami-hit region, Mr. Clinton told NBC’s “Nightly News” yesterday in an interview taped at his suburban Chappaqua home. Of his health generally, he said, “Oh, I feel really good.”

“I don’t think I’m quite back to 100% because I started jogging a little right before I left, but I felt kind of – I’m not sure everything’s settled in there yet,” Mr. Clinton said. Anchor Brian Williams asked Mr. Clinton whether his wife, Senator Clinton, was deciding to run for president in 2008. “I am quite confident that she has not decided to do that,” Mr. Clinton said. “Or if she has, she hasn’t told me.”

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

HIKIND ANNOUNCES SUBWAY CAMERAS IN NINE STATIONS

More than a hundred cameras have been monitoring subway stations in Brooklyn for the last two weeks, according to Dov Hikind, a Democratic Assemblyman of Brooklyn, who secured funding for the cameras.

The 120 cameras are distributed over nine subway stations on the D, F, and N lines in Boro Park, Dyker Heights, Kensington, and Midwood. Mr. Hikind used $1.2 million from his state budget to install the cameras to fight and deter crime in the area, he said. Camera footage will be stored for seven days to a month to aid detectives in investigating crimes committed in or near subway stations, Mr. Hikind said at a press conference in Boro Park yesterday. The announcement comes a week after the NYPD admitted it was seeking funding for 400 custom-built, digital-video cameras to be installed in high-crime areas.

– Special to the Sun

PROSPECT HEIGHTS BOARD TO PUT ATLANTIC YARDS CONCERNS IN WRITING

Brooklyn residents are urging the Empire State Development Corporation to require Forest City Ratner, the developer of the proposed 60-million square foot Atlantic Yards project, to address a bevy of their concerns when it prepares its required Environmental Impact Statement.

Members of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Environmental Sub-Committee of Community Board 8 in Prospect Heights will present a document to the ESDC next week proposing several recommendations for inclusions in the EIS Forest City Ratner presents, such as transparency regarding how the company arrives at their calculations, increased scope of land that the study will figure in, use of realistic statistics concerning the number of people that the complex will attract, state of the art traffic modeling, and community signoff on the final plan. “We want to influence the process before it starts,” said Community Board member William Batson, who is overseeing the preparation of the document along with Brian Ketcham, an engineer who is working with the group. Neither Forest City Ratner nor the EMDC is required to accept the group’s terms.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE OFFICER SHOT IN BROWNSVILLE

A police officer making a car stop was shot in the torso in Brownsville last night, police said.

The male officer was in surgery at Brookdale Hospital, a police spokesman said. The officer was with his partner and apparently had pulled over a car when he was shot at about 7:15 p.m. on Dumont Street, police said. Broadcast reports said police had a suspect in custody after the car drove off, crashed, and two men fled the vehicle. The report also said a manhunt found one suspect, who had been shot in the shoulder, in a nearby apartment building.

– Associated Press

THE BRONX

TWO-YEAR-OLD GIRL HIT BY CITY BUS

A 2-year-old girl was hospitalized in serious condition after being hit by a city bus in the Bronx yesterday, authorities said. The girl was struck at East 196th Street and Grand Concourse at 3:47 p.m., a police department spokesman, Detective Louis Camacho, said. The circumstances surrounding the accident were under investigation. The bus, on the BX1 route, was in service when the accident took place, a New York City Transit spokesman said.

– Associated Press