Scott Stringer doesn’t want to end up like Betsy Gotbaum. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, wants the Charter Revision Commission to ensure borough presidents have independent budgets not subject to cuts by the City Council or the mayor’s office. Former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum saw her budget slashed by 40 percent last year, and said it was payback for her opposition to the term-limits extension, which was supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Christine Quinn.
Stringer seems to agree that other opponents to Bloomberg and Quinn could find themselves without money.
“I can’t have an argument with both of them at the same time,” Stringer is quoted as saying in today’s Crain’s Insider. In explaining his push for independent budgeting, Stringer recalled, “what happened to Betsy Gotbaum, where they both decided to chop her budget in half.”
