Calling Tax Hike Mike out on the carpet

From the Neighborhood Retail Alliance:

For those with senile dementia here's what Take a Tax Hike Mike did: "New York City (especially Manhattan) has often been criticized for its high taxes and high cost of living. In his first term as mayor (from 2002). Michael Bloomberg raised taxes, stating that he wouldn’t cut back on essential city services. In January 2003, Bloomberg was cited in the New York Times stating the following: “If New York City is a business, it isn’t Wal-Mart—it isn’t trying to be the lowest-priced product in the market,” a draft of the speech reads. “It’s a high-end product, maybe even a luxury product. New York offers tremendous value, but only for those companies able to capitalize on it.” The “New York is a luxury product” speech has been widely quoted. The “luxury product” idea is criticized by those who point out New York’s disappearing middle class."

And we don't have to go back to 2002 to dramatize just how hypocritical this-can the folks remember the mayor's sales tax hike last spring, the one that was enacted in the middle of the deepest recession in 60 years?

We are going to be in for a rather rude awakening in January should the mayor get re-elected. Five borough euphoria will give way to the additional tax raises-this time, however, accompanied by the knife and scalpel to the city's budget. The folks are gonna wonder what happened, because if you listened to the full panoply of Bloomberg campaign ads, you would have heard not a single discouraging word. In our view, this fact alone-the sheer and monumental dishonesty and hypocritical disregard for speaking the truth when you are not beholden to the special interests-is ample cause for giving Mike his ticket to ride.