Pity poor, abandoned New York City: That’s what Mayor de Blasio and his first deputy, Tony Shorris, seem to be saying.
On Wednesday, Shorris whined that “Albany’s completely dysfunctional” and “Washington’s disappeared” when it comes to aiding the city financially, so the mayor has a duty to “lay out” the city’s needs. Translation: Give us more money!
And this was only the latest Team de Blasio tin-cup rattling. “We’ve seen years of — in fact, decades — of disinvestment” by the feds and the state, de Blasio groused last month. “What we don’t have is the help we need,” he moaned the week before.
Earth to de Blasio: Gotham is richer than much of America. Median household income in the New York Metropolitan Statistical Area is the second-highest of the Census Bureau’s 280 MSAs.
City Hall spends far more per capita than any other large US city — some $80 billion a year in all. Oh, and $23 billion of that already comes from Albany and DC.
Progressives like de Blasio should be offering aid to other areas, not begging for help.
We get it: The mayor needs more cash from outside to institute “socialism in one city.”
Sorry, Bill: The only way to get that help is to show some ideological restraint. Get your staff to do a bit more cost-cutting — and less begging for more of other people’s money.