Pulling the rug out from under New York City
As a senator from New York, Hillary Clinton supported collecting property taxes from foreign embassies in New York City. As Obama's secretary of state, she's telling them not to pay.
When Hillary Clinton was the senator from New York, she supported to city’s efforts to get foreign embassies stationed at the United Nations to pay property taxes.
Now, as Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton has thrown New York under the bus.
Not only is this going to cost New York some $260 million, it reverses a state department position that’s more than 130 years old.
From the New York Post:
Mayor Bloomberg ripped into the State Department today for allowing foreign governments to not pay taxes on some diplomatic residences in the city.
“They won’t be paying taxes, but if you or I have a building [in the city], we pay taxes … It is totally unfair.”
The Post reported in today’s editions that Hillary Rodham Clinton has quietly reversed a longstanding policy requiring foreign governments to pay those property taxes.
It is a shocking about-face by Secretary of State Clinton — who repeatedly spoke in favor of the city’s right to collect the taxes when she was New York’s junior senator.
A 2007 court decision was prompting India and Mongolia to pay up, and Hungary had already cut a check for $32.5 million, but canceled it after the state department told them to stiff New York.
Guess we can’t assume a carpet-bagging senator to keep any resemblance of allegiance to her state after she moves up.
Sources:
New York Post, July 13, 2009
BLOOMBERG: CITY SHOULD GET $260M IN BACK TAXES
New York Post, July 14, 2009
MAYOR BLOOMBERG FUMES OVER HILLARY CLINTON’S $260M FLIP-FLOP
New York Post, July 14, 2009
WCBSTV, July 14, 2009
