PRESS RELEASE
November 6, 2008
Contact: Rob Hart, communications director
212-788-7045, rhart@council.nyc.gov
Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. today sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg and started an online petition to save the $400 property tax rebate for homeowners.
Recchia is encouraging all New Yorkers to sign the petition at the following link:
http://www.petitiononline.com/
“We need to send out these checks, and we need to do it now,” Recchia wrote in his letter to the mayor. “They should have been in the mail already.”
The text of Recchia’s letter to the mayor follows:
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
The city is on the verge of economic disaster, and I understand the need to make difficult decisions. We did it once before, when we called upon New Yorkers to pitch in after the September 11th terrorist attacks. They dug into their pockets to keep this city afloat.
Today, though, we are facing a very different situation. It is not just New York City that’s steeped in recession – the entire country is at the mercy of a crisis directly linked to the housing market. Therefore, I believe your proposal to cancel the $400 property tax rebate for homeowners should not move forward. We need to send out these checks, and we need to do it now. They should have been in the mail already.
Every penny counts for New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet. Countless constituents have told me they rely on the rebate check for a variety of activities, from Christmas shopping to home heating costs. Up until recently they have been told by 311 and the Department of Finance that the check would be arriving in late Fall. Many of them are waiting for it, and have already worked it into their budgets. To rescind it now is tantamount to taking $400 out of their hands.
We made a commitment to provide this. I know we could not have predicted the collapse of Wall Street, but we need to stick by our word. New York City’s homeowners are counting on us. We can not let them down.
Sincerely
Domenic M. Recchia, Jr.
Council Member, 47th District
