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The Last Showdown
October 27th, 2009

The second — and final debate — between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Comptroller Bill Thompson featured a number of sharp exchanges between the two men, few flashes of affability or humor — and no lightening round. As Thompson struck a tougher stance and offered a more staccato delivery than he had in their last meeting, Bloomberg stepped up his attacks and often seemed miffed.

The substance offered little new. Thompson repeatedly slammed the mayor for driving the middle class out of the city. Bloomberg continued to attack Thompson on his record as president of the now defunct Board of Education.

Closing the Budget Gap

After ignoring the city’s finances the last time around, both candidates tonight pledged not to raise taxes and, with the city facing a $5 billion budget gap, neither offered specifics as to what they would cut.
Details on this and other issues after the jump.

Earlier this month, Thompson had endorsed a millionaire’s tax, reversing his prior opposition. Now the millionaire’s tax, once again, seemed off the table. Instead, Thompson said, he would cut what he estimated is $9 billion in services the city contracts out, eliminate waste, cut programs that don’t work and close tax loopholes.

Bloomberg wasn’t buying Thompson’s “no tax” pledge. “He’s said so many different things about it I can’t keep up with what he’s going to tax, but he’s going to tax something,” the mayor said.

But for a man whose rationale for running has been that the city needs his fiscal leadership during this time of economic crisis, Bloomberg, too, was vague, promising not to cut essential service or raise taxes but not saying how he might do that. “In the end you have to grow the economy,” he said.

“Mike, you didn’t put forth one solid proposal,” Thompson said.

The mayor said the city had avoided more draconian cuts because he had set money aside during the good years. He neglected, though, to add that that the days of rolled- over surpluses has largely drawn to a close.

Education

No issue, though elicited as much rancor as education. Seeing this as his strong suit, Bloomberg pounded away. He took a question about jobs and used it to attack Thompson for creating “patronage jobs at the Board of Education.” When Thompson tried to return to jobs — accusing the mayor of ignoring small business and not doing more to save the garment center — Bloomberg switched gears back to education.

“When my opponent ran the Board of Education,” he said, “The school system didn’t do anything for our kids.”

Citing a New York Times story, Thompson responded that during his tenure at the Board of Education test scores had gone up.

Bloomberg wasn’t having any of that, saying the Times headlined its story that Thompson “made people at the Board of Education feel good.”

(Fact check: The headline currently on the story reads, “On School Board, Thompson Was a Conciliator,” and the article goes on, “Thompson rarely lost his footing, counted votes with a mathematician’s care and supported chancellors … who broke the power of local school boards, took over failing schools and concentrated power in their hands. Test scores over all rose for four straight years as the reforms took hold.”)

On his own management of the school system, Bloomberg said he had narrowed the achievement gap between races, reduced violence in schools and spurred more kids to go on to college. He expressed optimism that the city’s scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress will have gone up when results are released in a couple of weeks — after the election. (New York State scores on the U.S. test have remained flat, casting doubts about the validity of the state tests and the rapid rises in scores on them.)

Accusing Bloomberg of running “an Enron of education” that “cooks” the numbers,” Thompson said the system focused too much on training students to take the state standardized test. As mayor, Thompson said, he would strengthen the curriculum to help students think creatively, put an educator in charge and “let teachers teach.”

“If I had $20 million and ran the school system, the school system would be much better than it is today,” Thompson said.

Ethical Lapses>

Bloomberg again scored Thompson for taking campaign contributions from pension fund placement agents and urged Thompson to return the money. He quoted a Times headline which, the mayor said, read, “Pension Fund Performance Declined as Contributions to Thompson Went Up.”

(Fact check: Bloomberg was close to the mark here. The headline says, ” As Pension Fund Lagged, Contributions to Comptroller Grew.”)

Thompson denied any connection between contributions and investment decisions.

He then turned the table on the mayor — who, of course, does not take contributions — accusing him of using his billions to buy political support. Calling it “pay to endorse,” Thompson said, “He’s doing it with the expectation of something in return. … It’s not progress, Mike, it’s politics and the worse kind of politics.”

Thompson had some pretty good ammunition on this one thanks to a just published article in the Times (again!). David Chen reported that Andrew Geller, Bloomberg’s accountant, contributed $26,000, apparently the maximum allowed, to Newark Mayor Corey Booker’s re-election campaign a month after Booker backed Bloomberg. Booker, a Democrat, has emerged has one of Bloomberg’s biggest fans.

Bloomberg responded by delivering a paean to Booker and Mayors Adrian Fenty of Washington and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and the new mayor of Detroit, who he did not name (it’s David Bing}.

The Middle Class

Thompson repeatedly charged that 1 million middle class people had been pushed out of the city during the Bloomberg years. Bloomberg did not dispute the number but said he was working hard for the middle class by building affordable housing and trying to create good jobs.

One way the mayor has hurt the middle class, Thompson charged, is by naming people to Rent Guidelines Board who have raised rents too much. Bloomberg said his appointees sought “to have a balance between rents people can afford” and allowing landlords to make enough money so they would not abandon buildings as they did in the 1970s.

When Thompson,said the city had stood by and done nothing for rent-stabilized tenants at Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, forcing the tenants to go to court on their own, Bloomberg sidestepped the issue.

Neither man would cite a figure on what makes someone middle class in the city, although Thompson finally relented and offered “$50,000 to $170,000.”

Bloomberg seemed honestly flummoxed (or is a great actor) when asked whether he was out of touch with New Yorkers. He also said he had no idea of whether his wealth had increased recently.

Bits and Pieces

While saying he wanted the Yankees to win the World Series, Mets fan Thompson criticized the deal to build the new Yankee Stadium as “another example of the mayor’s giveaway to his developer friends.”

Bloomberg on the other hand, presented it as an investment “to leverage private funds.”

Challenged on why he would fire Ray Kelly, Thompson reiterated he would (he has said he would bring in a whole new slate), but that crime would continue to go down because of the fine work of police officers. Thompson then said Bernard Kerik, who now sits in jail, was Bloomberg’s first choice for police commissioner, something Bloomberg tried to joke about but did not deny.

(Good move: It’s true, according to this.)

Asked to grade the other one, Thompson said he would be “kind” and then gave Bloomberg a D-.

This offered Bloomberg a chance to be gracious, saying Thompson had “been a reasonably good comptroller,” and “it has been a pleasure to work with him.”

“I just don’t think he’s the right guy to run the city,” Bloomberg said.

By Gail Robinson on October 27, 2009, 9:35 pm
In category: Crime & Safety, Education, Electoral Politics, Governing, Housing, Public Finance | No Comments »

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