Results tagged “comptroller”

The Rent is Too Damn High Party just cannot catch a break. Besides being shockingly omitted from last night's debate, Mayoral candidate Jimmy McMillan has had to stand by and watch the Board of Elections cut the d-word from his party's name, stripping it of all its cachet. And now an internal rift in the party has forced McMillan to turn his back on the Rent Is Too Damn High nominee for comptroller—and instead endorse his Democratic rival.

Following this weekend's crash, the carriage horse debate surfaces in the headlines once again. CityRoom takes a look at the status of the industry after two years of getting audited by the city comptroller's office. They note that while certain things have improved, "the two agencies that oversee the business have acted too slowly in putting reforms into effect."

According to the results going up at NY1, Bill Thompson scored a landslide victory over his opponents in the race for the Democratic mayoral nomination, leading Tony Avella by more than fifty percent. In other races, it looks like no one has reached the coveted 40% mark for Public Advocate or Comptroller— so you can look forward to a run-off election on September 29th. John Liu is currently in the lead for the Comptroller nod, with 38% to David Yassky's 30%. And in a surprising upset, Bill de Blasio has a 2% lead over Mark Green in the Public Advocate race, with 95% of the precincts reporting. In the battle for Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, D.A. Robert Morgenthau's preferred successor, easily beat Leslie Crocker Snyder 43% to 30%. In City Council race news, Alan Gerson appears to have lost District 1 to Margaret Chin, and Steve Levin seems to have scored a victory over a crowded field in District 33, which represents parts of Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint. More tomorrow!

Payouts from the NYPD in settlements and judgments soared during the last fiscal year, according to a report from Comptroller William Thompson detailing the city's payouts. Overall, the city paid $567.9 million as a result of lawsuits, an increase of about 2% over the previous time period. But the NYPD's payouts increased 11% percent, to $102.8 during fiscal year 2008, which ended September 30th. Of that amount, $35.2 million was paid in settlements over charges of improper police action, up 40% over the previous year.

New York City's budget gap will be as much as $1.9 billion in fiscal 2009 and could possibly balloon to as much as $5 billion by 2011, according to a wholly depressing new report from City Comptroller (and mayoral hopeful) William Thompson Jr. Is it okay to just go back to bed and pretend this isn't happening? Certainly, but the report's disheartening data will still be there tomorrow morning: The recession could cost the city some $935 million in tax revenues next year, a figure that includes a $525 million shortfall in real estate-related taxes, a $345 million reduction in personal income and business taxes, and a $65 million loss in property taxes.

NYC comptroller William Thompson is proposing that the city plug the MTA's budget gap by raising automobile registration fees in the 12 counties served by the MTA’s trains and buses. If passed by the State Legislature, his plan would require drivers in the city and surrounding counties to pay $100 a year to register their vehicles. (The city currently charges $30 every two years.) According to the Times, drivers with vehicles weighing more than 2,300 pounds would have to pay an additional 9 cents per pound. By that measure, owners of Lincoln Navigators, which weigh in at 6,000 lbs., would owe the city $450 per year. Thompson says the revenue could add up to about $1 billion per year and serve as an alternative to the MTA's "devastating" budget proposal announced last week.