Hizzoner The Beast Starver

On the one hand, they just announced another chintzy $400 rebate ($250 million a year) while on the other they want to implement draconian-sounding “hiring freezes”:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, responding to shrinking revenues from a cooling economy, imposed a hiring freeze for all agencies yesterday and directed commissioners to devise spending reductions of 2.5 percent this fiscal year and 5 percent in the next.

It is the first time officials have resorted to a citywide plan to make cuts since October 2002, when the budget was still reeling from the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 terror attack. Since then, the city’s superheated real estate market and fat payouts on Wall Street have led to surpluses, including a record $4.4 billion in the last fiscal year, which allowed the mayor to increase spending and services while cutting taxes and offering rebates.

. . .

Commissioners are to submit their plans for budget cuts by Nov. 19, and will not be permitted to fill any positions other than those directly related to public health or safety at least until the mayor decides which cuts to make. If they find they have additional expenses, Mr. Page wrote in bold type, “you should reprioritize your existing budget.”

Although the reductions would yield an estimated $500 million for this year and $1 billion for the next, Mr. Page wrote that the numbers were targets and did not mean that final decisions had been made about how much each particular agency would need to cut.