West Flushing Civic Association

Eye On Elected Officials

REPORT CARDS TO BE ISSUED

At the end of this month, our newly elected city officials will have been in office for 90 days, and West Flushing Civic will be issuing its first quarterly report cards on how well they are serving the people. To that end, we welcome your input.

And just so that they won't be neglected, we will also issue report cards for state and federal elected officials, most of whom will be asking for your vote again this year. Do they deserve it?

To participate, simply go back to the West Flushing Civic Association Homepage and click on "Talk About It"
(top right-hand column). Alternatively, if you want us to consider your input but do not wish to post it, you can use the "Email Your Neighborhood Leader" function in the left-hand (green) column's "Questions & Comments" box. All opinions must be signed, and identifiable, or they will be deleted.

We will also be on the lookout for attempts to stuff the ballot box. Entries by political hacks will be accorded their actual worth.

Some Names To Consider: John Liu, any of our other councilpersons; Gifford Miller; Helen Marshall; Betsy Gottbaum; Bill Thompson; Mike Bloomberg; Brian McLaughlin; Toby Stavisky, Dan Hevesi, Frank Padavan; Carl McCall; George Pataki; Gary Ackerman, Nita Lowey, Joe Crowley; Chuck Shumer, Hillary Clinton; George W. Bush.

MOLDY WORDS FROM A NEW COUNCILMEMBER

Tony Avella (City Council, 19th dist.), speaking at a recent meeting of a local political club, said that tax increases would not be considered by the City Council as a means of generating the revenue needed to offset the looming deficit predicted for the city budget in the coming fiscal year. Avella, cozy with the political establishment in this metropolis for his entire political career, attempts to appear otherwise notwithstanding, can be regarded as a completely reliable source on this issue.

Absent from his remarks about the budget was any mention of rescinding the large tax breaks corporations have become accustomed to extorting from the city in the past fifteen years, among other inequities in the city’s tax code which could and should be corrected immediately. As anyone who has had any acquaintance with Mayor Bloomberg’s FY 2003 city budget presentation would know, more service reductions (in addition to ones we’ve been having to endure for the past 27 years) are forecast, trash recycling among the more visible of those. And, we’re expected to believe that the current membership in the City Council is providing the vision and leadership we need?

Harvey Baylis