Yet Another Item For The Oppo-Research File

If there’s one thing we know about Presidential elections it’s that American voters don’t want to hear that you’ve raised taxes:

Rules dating back to the city’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s call for the sales tax charged in the city to drop 1 percentage point, to 7.375%, this summer. Mr. Bloomberg is working to make sure the scheduled tax cut never happens.

The Bloomberg administration is asking Albany legislators to authorize a tax increase that cancels out the reduction so that the tax remains at 8.375%.

“We are working with the State and we anticipate that they will provide the necessary authorization,” a spokesman for the mayor said via e-mail.

During the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the state raised the city’s portion of the sales tax to four cents on each dollar of goods sold from three cents to create a revenue stream dedicated to bailing out the city from its financial troubles. When the law that imposed a financial control board on the city expires on July 1, 2008, the sales tax increase also is set to dissolve.

. . .

The 8.375% sales tax charged in the city is divided into three parts: 4% goes to the state, another 4% to the city, and .375% to the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District.

According to a Preliminary Official Statement from the city sent to prospective bond buyers on December 5, the city projects that if it is unable to push through the tax increase, sales tax revenues in the city would drop by approximately $1.19 billion in the fiscal year 2009, $1.25 billion in 2010, and $1.31 billion in 2011.

“On July 1, 2008, the local sales tax, which is currently imposed by the State at the rate of 4%, will expire and, absent legislative action, a 3% local sales tax imposed by the City would be in effect. The Financial Plan assumes that the City will receive the legislative authorization to continue the local sales tax at the rate of 4%,” the document states.

Previously on Why Bloomberg Will Never Run For President: Hizzoner explaining the Iraqi insurgency at Cooper Union, Hizzoner placing the threat of terrorism below that of a hurricane, Hizzoner being alarmist about a return to the days of Hoovervilles, the steak dinner genesis story, his administration’s spendthrift ways (no really, check the MySpace page) and — worst of all — his clumsy Wesley Clark-like name checking of Shakira. And that list doesn’t even take into account his pro-choice position . . .