Big Brown is coming to Belmont Park where he will try to become the second undefeated Triple Crown winner in history. Not since Seattle Slew has that feat been accomplished.
The fact that there will be a possible Triple Crown at the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes is good news for racing. Fans love a winner and they love the best of the best.
The hotels in Queens will be filled with fans who want to be part of history. These Belmont bettors will wager big money on the hope of making a few cents on a dollar. Nevertheless, it is not about the money, it is about the moment, the memory and the magic. We wish Big Brown his moment in history - in the winner’s circle one more time.
THE BAD …
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed cutting the funding for the City University of New York system by over $48 million. Of that overall amount the mayor wants to whack $26.5 million from the aggregate community college budget.
Community colleges are the backbone of the educational system that help low-income and working class New Yorkers get ahead. This reduction comes at the worst possible time, during an economic recession.
They also come just when the demand for an affordable, high quality community college education is at a 30-year record high. Enrollments are booming, with almost 80,000-degree credit students, and another 118,000 students in workforce development education and training annually. The cuts will reduce classes, curtail library hours, limit tutors, and close computer labs. You must reverse these cuts Mr. Mayor before they slam the door on the next generation of our middle class.
THE UGLY
Shame, shame on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council. They have allowed the bizarre rental system of the New York Water Board to pick homeowners’ and businesses’ pockets again - this time to the tune of 14.5 percent more a year after the last 11 percent increase.
The average homeowner will have to shell out $102 more per year, escalating to an average bill of over $800 per annum and all 825,000-rate payers will cough up an increase of over $350 million. The Water Board by law must make up any shortfall between collections and the rate the city charges the board as a form of rent to pay off pre-1984 infrastructure and bond debt. The ugly news is that figure, 14.5 percent, could rise even higher if a scheduled lien sale of more than 3,000 deadbeat, multiple-family buildings falls short of its $30 million target.
The ugliest fact of all is that the city has been for years draining off all of the excess revenues that the rental formula produces to use in its general treasury. So far, the water tax has dumped $122 million into the bottomless bucket at City Hall. Fix this broken pipe - leave the excess monies alone and collect the owed revenues.
