Mayor Bloomberg secured a third term yesterday over Democratic challenger Bill Thompson, though by a smaller margin than expected.
Seems Mike wasn’t immune from the anti-incumbent backlash sweeping the country — perhaps exacerbated, in his case, by his decision to repeal term limits to make the run.
The message from voters: Don’t rest on your laurels.
Indeed, Mike needs to start work today on the one issue that’ll define his legacy: preserving Gotham’s basic services and quality of life in the face of potentially crippling state and city budget crises.
Which means getting downright nasty with the powers-that-be in Albany.
Thing is, Bloomberg can’t do much of anything without a blessing from upriver, where very different interests prevail.
He’s learned this the hard way: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver deep-sixed a proposed West Side stadium; the state Senate dithered away as mayoral control over the schools expired this summer — and successive governors have done nothing to resolve the bureaucratic nightmare at Ground Zero.
And Mike has stood smilingly by.
Part of the reason for this is the nature of government in New York: Gotham is a constitutional subdivision of the state, thus it needs the OK for most major policy changes from Albany — which forges its own agenda.
And part of it devolves from the mayor’s personality: He’s allergic to public confrontation.
Indeed, he’s been so nice that the city’s reps in the Legislature learned that there’s small price to be paid for crossing Gotham’s interests.
This needs to change — now.
Because everything Mike’s sought in the past eight years pales in comparison to the state’s budget tsunami. Current projections put the state deficit at $10 billion over the next 18 months — and $15 billion the year after that.
With a feckless governor all but irrelevant, the cowards in Albany are standing ready to cannibalize the MTA and sock New Yorkers with more taxes and fees, rather than stand up to the special interests responsible for the crisis.
That spells death for the city — and Bloomberg’s legacy.
But will he do anything about it?