The good news from
yesterday's city council vote to local property holders is that their $400 rebate checks, which Mayor Bloomberg had previously
tried to hold back, were cleared by the Mayor for delivery, speaker Christine Quinn announced. The bad news is that property taxes were increased by 7 percent -- or, rather, a prior 7 percent tax cut was repealed. The hotel tax was also raised from 5 to 5.875 percent. (
Newyorkology says this comes out to about $3 extra a night.) The Council also
restored some budget items which the Mayor had cut: $5 million to CUNY, $3.763 to Children's Services, and a few other line items, but cut $13 million from the budget for "consulting on city capital projects," per the
Gotham Gazette, which was told that the session reduced the city's projected 2009 deficit from $4 billion to $1.1 billion.
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