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Bloomberg Hates Silver and His Commuter Tax Repealing Ways
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 30, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 30, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Ooh, we love a revenge plot: The Observer looks at how Mayor Bloomberg's annoyance with State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver may play out during his second term. Silver infamously blocked the Mayor's quixotic (yes, now we say quixotic) plan to bring a stadium to the West Side railyards (and some might say that failed plan helped sink the city's Olympic bid) and pundits wonder if the Mayor is out for blood. Bloomberg has been talking about brining back the commuter tax, which was repealed in 1999 by Silver and marks a "low point" in his career. The Observer explains that Silver pushed through the elimination in hopes of winning a senate seat in Rockland County against the Republicans, but the Dems lost anyway. Funnily enough, in 2002, Silver had said he'd be willing to reinstate the commuter tax, if only to give NYC that annual $500 million back. In 2003, Gotham Gazette offered that Silver played a "short-sighted" political game with the epeal, which benefitted upstate voters instead of, oh, the voters in his own downtown Manhattan district!
Bloomberg and Silver were smiling in this photo op for the groundbreaking of the new Goldman Sachs building downtown, but Gothamist bets that they wanted to slug each other with those shovels.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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