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February 14, 2003

Gotta Love Bloomberg

Everytime Bloomberg opens his mouth, I like his style.

Also check out the transcript from CNN's Inside Politics where he just poured scorn on the interviewer trying to argue that raising taxes would drive people out of New York City. CNN's Jonathan Karl seemed to take as gospel the rightwing mantra that slashing public spending equates with saving jobs. Bloomberg would have none of it:

KARL: Didn't you say you weren't going to raise taxes?

BLOOMBERG: Let me finish. Thank you very much. I said, yes, I was forced to do it. And, yes, I did. And, yes, I had to change. When you say something - the first year we could not raise taxes because people were threatening to leave the city. It was right after 9/11. The city is much more stable. And we have a budget problem. The economy has slowed down. We don't have the revenue. So we have a choice. Either we stop putting out the fires, stop arresting the bad guys, stop picking up the trash, stop educating our kids, or we raise our taxes. That's an easy decision for me to make. I find it hard to believes that you would question it.

KARL: Well, you've got a problem, you have what, 100,000 jobs that have left the city, how do you get the jobs back in the city if commuter tax is coming on line, property tax -

BLOOMBERG: The one way I guarantee you won't have those jobs is if the streets aren't safe, if our schools aren't good, if the fires aren't put out, if the trash isn't picked up. That's what drives people out, not taxes.

Posted by Nathan at February 14, 2003 08:09 AM

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