Budget Approved, Brings New Yorkers $400 Rebates

Going before the cameras to announce this weeks crowd pleaser of a budget, both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller must have felt secure they were scoring political points with every one of their target constituencies.
Theres new funding for homeowners, for the elderly, for the working poor, and for schools and libraries. The $47 billion-plus budget for the fiscal year will begin on July 1.
Negotiations continued to late Monday night, when the City Council finally agreed to support Mayor Bloomberg’s $400 property tax rebate, with calls on the State Legislature to let the city offer the rebate to homeowners annually for the next three years.
To ensure Millers support for the rebate, the Mayor has agreed to eliminate city income taxes for some 700,000 working families who earn less than $34,000 a year.
As part of the budget, the Council also won over $215 million in programs that the Mayor did not include in his budget proposal, including tens of millions for libraries, social and health initiatives and for urban youth programs.
"I think it was a win-win budget," said Councilmember David I Weprin. "The Mayors rebate will benefit homeowners. We have also argued for and won increased support for day care, libraries and reducing class sizes. Queens libraries are the most used in the nation and thanks to this $10 million dollar enhancement the increase in funding means theyll stay open six days a week. It was a great budget for Queens and the city."
Councilmember John C. Liu welcomed the budget.
"In a difficult budgetary year, I am happy with the result," he said. "Im ecstatic were giving back to homeowners. We have also delivered to the public schools, particularly with regard to funding early schools and to the reduction of class sizes. We have also put back enough money to ensure the libraries will continue to operate without reductions. This is a budget where we focused on cutting the fat, and on providing resources where they are needed the most in schools and libraries."