Mayor Holds Optimistic Outlook
BY JOHN TOSCANO

With a national, possibly worldwide, recession signaling tough times ahead for every level on the economic scale, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held out the hope in his State of the City speech last week that he could somehow ease the burden for homeowners in the year ahead.

The mayor, now in his seventh year in office, said his soon-to-be released 2007-2008 budget will offer homeowners continued tax relief and he remained committed to extending the $400 property tax rebate to all homeowners.

In announcing the planned rebate and tax cut, Bloomberg stated: "During the sunny days we prepaid debt, saved for retirees' health care and budgeted responsibly, and when clouds started forming last year, working with the Comptroller [William C. Thompson], we began to cut spending and freeze hiring. Now, we will not walk away from making the hard decisions about what we can and cannot afford."

However, Bloomberg did hedge somewhat on those goals, saying that adopting his budget "will depend on a variety of factors unknown today- from the health of our economy to the continued help we get from our partners in state government".

With both state and city governments facing huge budget deficits this year and in the future, it might take a miracle for the mayor to give out the rebate and the seven percent, across-the-board property tax cut.

Besides these goodies, Bloomberg laid out a broad list of hoped for improvements, from fighting crime to delivery of government services to programs for seniors.

Here in Queens, the mayor's plans for the coming year include:

•Opening the city's second Family Justice Center in Kew Gardens, providing domestic violence victims another place where they can find all the services they need under one roof.

•An expansion of the Queens Museum of Art and construction of a million-square-foot office complex at Queens Plaza.

•Start construction of a middle-income housing development on a 30-acre waterfront site at Queens West in Hunters Point.

•Rezoning Willets Point "one of the most significant environmental reclamation projects of our time".

•Establishing in collaboration with the city council and the New York Academy of Medicine the All Ages project, which will envision what it means to grow old in New York.

Another seniors' project will take place in five Queens neighborhoods where pedestrians have suffered serious, sometimes fatal injuries. These neighborhoods- Flushing, Murray Hill, Jackson Heights, Jamaica Hills, Rego Park and Sunnyside- will get safety upgrades at dangerous intersections.

The mayor's address, which is always watched closely for major policy changes each year, also was scrutinized this year for any connections it might have to his possible independent campaign for president.

One such moment came at the beginning of the address as he was paying tribute to several immigrant families from Flushing that had received special invitations to the event. Addressing them, he stated: "Their presence is a two-way street. New York gives them unlimited opportunities and these families help make New York the nation's economic engine, its financial hub, the fashion center, the media mecca and its cultural capital.

"And that's one of the messages I've been speaking out on to those who are wailing against immigration, to those politicians who, all of a sudden, have embraced xenophobia, I say, open your eyes.

"Take a look behind me. This is what makes America great. This is New York City. This is freedom. This is compassion, and democracy, and opportunity."

Continuing, he said, New York City's in a major competition with major cities around the world.

"These cities are not putting up barriers," he declared. "They're not looking inward or blaming someone else. They're not afraid of the new or the different, and we shouldn't be, either. If we are, we don't have a chance.

"Keeping New York City and America at the front of the pack begins with an openness to new energy, meaning immigration, and to new ideas, meaning innovation. That's how I built my business and that's the approach I've brought to a city government that was insular and provincial, and married to the conventional."

Continuing his efforts to improve public schools, the mayor announced in his speech a new policy to end social promotion in the eighth grade as part of the 2008- 09 school year.

Simply put, if eighth grade students fail the necessary tests, they will not graduate with their class.

The mayor stated, "If they're going to succeed in high school, and in a competitive world, they need to know the basics before they get there."

In another major schools development, Bloomberg said that the city will create a first-in-the-nation rigorous career and technical program that will start in high school and continue in community college.

The programs, to be offered in September 2009, will be created by a task force co-chaired by former Mayor David Dinkins and New York Life Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Sy Sternberg.