Mark Winston Griffith

Take this Rebate Check and Shove it…into a Good Cause

It arrived yesterday in the mail: The $400 property rebate check that the City Council so insisted upon, like it was my birthright as a New York City homeowner.

Don’t get me wrong, I can use the four hundred bucks, but sending $400 to homeowners strikes me as political gimmickry, not to mention economic recklessness, considering that the City Council simultaneously approved a 7% property tax increase. Why put a few hundred dollars in my left pocket, while taking a few thousand from my right? Aren’t we in the middle of a financial crisis? As one New Yorker commented in the New York Times, “Giving me a rebate check and raising taxes doesn’t make any sense.”

What would have made more sense is if the City Council had invested the full $256 million property tax rebate load into foreclosure prevention/relief for areas like Central Brooklyn and South East Queens. That will at least targeted at homeowners who need it the most while having a residual effect on the surrounding community.

In the meantime, it will be up to the few, the chosen, to put it towards a more poetic and righteous cause than, say, bolstering the economy through consumerism. One of my colleagues is thinking about donating her rebate check to Homes for the Homeless.

In the meantime, let’s hope 2009 delivers a better set of economic decisions.

Mark Winston Griffith: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 1:34 PM, Dec 31, 2008 in Economic Opportunity
Permalink | Email to Friend