------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 23, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
BLOOMBERG'S "TICKET BLITZ": A SNEAKY WAY TO RAISE TAXES
By G. Dunkel New York
All over the country, tax cuts for corporations and the rich plus a weak economy have left local governments struggling to handle the resulting deficits.
They can't print money, like the federal government, and are prevented by law from running into red ink. Some cities which have essentially gone bankrupt have been put under state control and have to slash services to the bone and beyond.
New York's billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come up with a novel twist on raising money--without formally raising taxes, which requires permission from the state and his City Council. It's called a ticket blitz.
This reporter saw a good example of the blitz. Two cars were parked in a bus stop, picking up students from a local college. A traffic agent wrote two tickets at over $100 each, threatening the drivers with another if they didn't move. When one pulled out of the bus stop and doubled parked to get the last bit of luggage in, another cop came along and gave him a ticket for double parking.
And it's not just parking tickets. Press reports tell of one person who was ticketed for sitting on a milk crate--that's against some local ordinance. A pregnant high school student was tired and sat on some subway steps to rest. She got a ticket for blocking the steps.
A block in Queens was subject to a sanitation agent blitz; there are an amazing number of ways you can incorrectly put out your garbage. But even when residents pulled in their bags before the agents got to their houses, they were ticketed. And some were ticketed because the agent had already made out the ticket even though he couldn't find anything wrong with their bags.
The billionaire mayor, accused of setting quotas, says they are just "productivity targets."
Black and Latino political leaders have denounced this new Bloomberg campaign. "Again, Mayor Bloomberg is showing his preference for the rich," said Helen Foster, co-chair of the Council's Black and Hispanic Caucus.
"I'm sure if his mother, sister or daughter were pregnant, he wouldn't want them to get a summons for sitting down on the subway [steps]. But then again, they'd probably be in a car service and wouldn't have to be on the train. And that shows two worlds," Foster said at a City Hall news conference.
Added Council member Charles Barron of Brooklyn: "We cannot allow the mayor to continue to balance the budget off the backs of poor people."
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