Bloomberg Believes Quinn Is Last Barrier Against Union Takeover

Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't seem to be willing to distance himself from mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, nor would he shy away from heaping heavy praise on one of  his would-be successors.

“Chris Quinn has done a very good job as speaker,” Mr. Bloomberg told John Gambling during his weekly WOR radio show this morning, Colin Campbell reports. “Whether you’re going to vote for her or not, she has been a very good speaker. The city has been very well served by her. I don’t think that she gets enough credit for it.”

“The press goes onto her about member items or whatever we call them,” Mr. Bloomberg continued. “Each level of government has them. Number one, that’s the way you manage a legislative body. And number two, that gets you down to granular [level], to get services at the local level–which we should. It’s not a lot of money and we don’t waste any of it and we check every single thing. She has gotten beaten up on that and it’s just totally unfair. But just generally, she has done a very good job.”

Mr. Bloomberg, according to Campbell, also warned about union contracts, quoting an unnamed source who told him the City Council will be “a lot more liberal after this next election." 

“Some of these people say, ‘Oh, we’re going to get big retroactive raises’ or ‘I’m not going to vote for that mayoral candidate.’ If you gave big retroactive raises, you would have to increase property taxes 50 percent,” he argued. “I did not think it was going to happen. And then somebody yesterday said to me, ‘Well, the City Council is very liberal and it’s going to be a lot more liberal after this next election.’”

He added, “And who knows who the speaker’s going to be.”