Fernando Ferrer’s call to reinstate a stock-transfer tax to partly fund the $23 billion that a court ordered for Big Apple schools will hamstring the city’s efforts to force state lawmakers to pay the full load, Rep. Anthony Weiner charged yesterday.
Reviving the first public attacks of the 2005 Democratic mayoral primary, Weiner labeled his rival’s $1 billion-a-year proposal as “wrong-headed” and agreed with Mayor Bloomberg that the state should come up with all the cash resulting from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.
“Now we’ve kind of got this number that’s taken on a life of its own because of Freddy’s position,” Weiner told The Post’s editorial board. “That is going to make it harder for the next mayor to drive a hard bargain, because they’re going to be bargaining against Freddy’s position.”
Although the third-term congressman admitted there would likely be some financial wrangling between city and state, he ripped into Ferrer for giving away the store before negotiations had even begun.
“Certainly your opening salvo should not be ‘I’ll put a billion dollars on the table,’ because they’ll salivate over the idea that they can make that $2 billion,” Weiner continued.
The front-running Ferrer, who has called the idea that Albany would fork over $23 billion “delusional,” called on Weiner to offer a plan of his own.
“Find a way to deal with reality,” Ferrer said yesterday. “We are going to have to come up with something. Legislative leaders have been saying this for a long time. Having no plan is not a response.”