Recycling The Same Tired Ideas

Two things. One, don’t believe their lies:

A group lobbying against an expansion of the state’s bottle bill is going on the air with the ad below.

The group of bottlers — called New Yorkers for Real Recycling Reform — said in a press release that the ad will air in the Capital Region and around the state starting this week. The message is that an expansion of the bottle bill to include water and juice in addition to beer and soda would make those drinks more costly for consumers.

Jon Pierce, a spokesman for the group, said they will spend in the “mid-six figures” to put the air on cable and broadcast T.V. in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and maybe New York City.

Bottlers don’t want this because the unclaimed deposit money will go to the state instead of staying in their grubby mitts — the governor knows, just as the bottlers already know*, that all those cans you just throw into the recycling are a nice source of income.

But two, there is no need for a bottle deposit when the City forces you to recycle in the first place, and puts pressure on you via stiff fines handed out by sometimes rather overzealous garbage cops. So clearly the point of bottle deposits is to raise money, first by the bottling industry (huge scam) and now by the state (huger scam). Screw both of them.

*Dude, if Catsimatidis ran for mayor I would support him on this issue alone — and the mayor has nothing to do with recycling deposits!

Less Budget Than Free For All (Hope Suspending Term Limits Was Worth It!)

Amid explanations of “NYS Base Broadeners”, the Administration for Children’s Services getting their message out, expected union reticence and media snipes at whoever else, a snappy pullout quote (“‘You can only get so much blood out of a stone’ with budget cuts and other measures, the mayor said”) and wildly optimistic revenue projections (“One . . . was the $100 million the city expects to rake in from charging people 5 cents for each plastic bag they use at stores . . . up from the $19 million they estimated it would bring in two month[s] ago . . . [a]n administration official said they simply looked deeper at the numbers, and discovered New York City residents use about 1 billion plastic bags annually”), the Mayor pulls out the threat of eliminating the proverbial school band (or cutting library hours — take your pick):

By law, Mayor Bloomberg was supposed to deliver a balanced budget Friday. What he submitted was a blueprint.

It matches the city’s spending and revenue to the penny, and is sprinkled with the sort of tough threats that grab headlines — like firing 14,000 teachers and hiking the sales tax.

. . .

The governor’s budget cuts $771 million from city school aid. Rather than spread that through different parts of the sprawling Education Department, Bloomberg said every dime of that loss will have to come out of a teacher’s hide, blamed on the governor.

That’s not budgeting — that’s bargaining.

Similarly, Bloomberg’s budget assumes that unions will give up $350 million in health benefits and $200 million in pension contributions.

“This is his starting point, and then there are negotiations,” said Gregory Floyd, head of Teamsters Local 237. Even the mayor’s plan to raise the sales tax by one-quarter point and remove the exemption for clothing is up for discussion.

“Bloomberg’s plan will be the basis for months of negotiations, all against a backdrop of an economy that continues to plummet.

For now, it’s balanced with phantom dollars. Those numbers need to be real by the end of June.

Everything but the kitchen sink, and then that, too:

Michael Bloomberg’s preliminary budget includes plans to lay off 13,930 teachers, and he’s putting the onus on state lawmakers to prevent it.

Here’s what he wants them to do.

The mayor said the state has taken away $770 million in education aid to the city. “What does $770 million translate to?” he asked. “Well, it translates to roughly 14,000 teachers.”

He went on, “I am sympathetic with the state. They don’t have any more extra money than we have.”

The solution, he said, is to have the state pass along the federal education aid they’re receiving from Washington.

The “state can send it to another county, or they can send it to our five counties. They are cutting us more than anybody else,” he said.

When asked what he’d say to parents and teachers worried about the cuts, the mayor said, “I’d call Albany, because that’s what I’m going to be doing.”

On The Absurdity Of Rebates

Smoke and mirrors, just without bothering with the smoke and mirror part:

Facing unexpected resistance in the City Council over his midyear budget changes, Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that he’ll order more drastic agency cuts in two weeks if a deal isn’t reached quickly.

“If we decide to — or have to — send out the [$400 property-tax] rebate or the City Council doesn’t act, the $1.4 billion cut is not adequate, and we will send out another letter next week,” the mayor said.

That letter would be directed at agency heads, who were told on Wednesday to come up with another $1.4 billion in savings starting July 1.

Sources said the chief sticking point in the negotiations is the 7 percent property tax increase that the mayor has asked the council to approve as of Jan. 1 to generate an extra $600 million.

The sources said Bloomberg is willing to accede to the council’s demand that he send out the $400 property-tax rebate to small-home owners this year — but only after it approves the property-tax hike.

Box-Blocking Moron, Don’t Make Me Yawn

On the contrary, this is the most effective remedy for traffic congestion — much cheaper than gadgetry and revenue producing, to boot:

You may have begun to notice more traffic tickets being written. And you may have guessed — correctly — that it has to do with getting New York City more money. Well, brace yourselves, the city is putting 200 more ticket-writing traffic agents to work.

The city’s latest move to close the budget gap is annoying New Yorkers to no end. Soon, you may not be able to avoid the police no matter what you do. Approximately 100 of the agents will be in Manhattan; the other 100 will be spread out across the other boroughs.

“You get stuck out there in the middle; not because you’re not paying attention,” driver Rob Frangavilla said. “People walk across; you’re stuck there. I just think it’s a crazy way to raise money.”

. . .

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly laid out the plan on Tuesday.

“[We will put them] in Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. We will not deploy them right now in Staten Island,” Kelly said.

The agents will be looking primarily for drivers who “block the box” at intersections. That ticket will cost $115.

New Yankees Slogan?

“Assume the risk”:

A Red Sox fan who got pummeled for cheering on his team at Yankee Stadium should have known to keep his mouth shut, the Bombers said in court papers.

Charles Hillios, who is suing the Yanks for the beat-down, “assumed the risk of foreseeable injury based on his own conduct,” according to a federal court filing.

The team also contends that it’s “not liable for the alleged intentional conduct” of the two goons who battered the Bosox booster inside The House that Ruth Built in August.