It comes down to this: Without the city, the suburbs will die. New York is the great throbbing engine of the megalopolis, and if it falls into rust and decay, the suburbs will turn into a vast miserable plain.

That vision is a bit on the apocalyptic side, of course, but it's at the heart of certain urgent matters. The old divisions between city and suburb are gone. Some 800,000 suburbanites now earn their livings in the city. A New Jersey-based football team calls itself the New York Giants. People in Queens and Brooklyn root for the Nets or Jets. We are welded together by bridges, tunnels and ferries. And New York City is the elaborate linchpin of the entire meshed system.

"We're in a crisis," says Bill Cunningham, the superb deputy to Mayor Bloomberg. "Now we have to make everybody part of the solution."

In that spirit, Bloomberg's proposed tax on all those who earn their living from the City of New York is absolutely just. It's also very intelligent, particularly for those suburban workers and their families. Obviously, nobody wants to pay more taxes. But everybody wants to have the best possible security in an insecure time. Suburbanites are protected by New York's police, rescued by our firefighters, tended by our emergency workers. New York sanitation workers clean up after them when they go home. They should be willing to pay for those services.

"They get so much from New York, beyond making a living," Cunningham says. "Just think of the cultural treasures that we provide them. But if they're hurt, or in trouble, nobody asks them if they're from the suburbs or from the Bronx. And since the end of the commuter tax, they don't pay anything. They must know that's unfair."

Blame the terrorists

This would be true in placid times. But at the moment, the city is in an economic crisis - one that's getting worse, not better. Tax revenues from the stock market are way down, as are revenues from foreign tourism. Jobs have been lost. Ragged patrols of the homeless are back on the streets.

But the reason for the current crisis is not bad management or mushy, outdated policies. The direct cause of the crisis is the carnage of Sept. 11, 2001, which tore a hole in the city's economy. On that day, New York was the prime American target of the fanatics. It remains a prime target. To defend against future assaults, and to continue the process of recovery, Bloomberg needs money.

"Sometimes all choices are bad," Cunningham says. "Cuts in services are bad. Taxes are bad. But you still have to step up to the plate. The mayor is stepping up to the plate."

Bloomberg can't practice the voodoo economics of the Bush administration. He is required by law to balance his budget - a requirement that emerged from the dismal fiscal crisis of the 1970s. This fiscal year's shortfall is $1.1 billion. Next year's will be an estimated $6 billion.

The mayor already has announced severe adjustments. There's a hiring freeze in effect. Some city jobs will be cut, firehouses closed, day care and senior citizen services trimmed. But some items can't be trimmed. Each year for the next five, for example, the city will have to fork over $500 million to pay off bonds issued as a result of the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. Citizens who were not even alive in those years are paying for its many stupidities.

"The mayor is determined not to saddle the next two generations of New Yorkers with those kinds of debts," Cunningham says. "They represent the longest hangover in New York history, and we'll be paying for it until 2007."

The Bloomberg plan, of course, is not focused only on asking the suburbs to pay their fair share of keeping the New York engine oiled and operating. New Yorkers themselves will pay a higher price. Bloomberg wants a 25% increase in the city's property tax, which will increase the already high price that millions pay for living in New York. The average homeowner would have to come up with an estimated $475 a year, or $1.30 a day. Owners of co-ops would pay about $1.80 a day, condo owners $3 a day. The owners of commercial properties would pay about $14,000 a year. Tough, but cheaper than hiring Pinkertons.

Some of this added expense will be offset for New Yorkers by reductions in the city income tax. At the moment, the top rate is 3.65%, for those who earn more than $90,000 a year. That would be reduced immediately to 2.7%, with further reductions over the following four years to 2.25%. But this can work only if those 800,000 suburbanites pay their share, too.

A special case

New York is not, of course, alone in this crisis. All over the country, cities are struggling to close holes in their budgets. The economic recession shows few signs of easing. The numbers of unemployed are rising. Crime is up everywhere except New York City.

But New York is a special case. Osama Bin Laden appears to be alive. Terrorists have struck in many places since Sept. 11, but New York remains a prime target. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says that about 1,000 members of the NYPD are engaged in the struggle against terrorism. But if we are hit by terrorists again, those underpaid cops and firefighters and emergency workers will be down on the front lines.

Yes, many of them live in the suburbs. But I support the idea (not mine) that cops and firefighters be exempted from federal income taxes until the emergency is over. And we should urge Bloomberg to give them a similar exemption from the new city income tax and the property tax if they live within the city limits. They deserve the exemptions as front-line troops, our infantry.

Meanwhile, the Bloomberg plan deserves the support of everybody, from Gov. Pataki down. And also from those who make a living from the energy and safety of a great city.

"We have to tighten our belts now, to get ready for the future," Cunningham says. "I think most of us realize that this is what has to be done. And we're New Yorkers. This is a bad time. But we'll beat it. We'll do everything we have to do, but we'll beat it. And in the end, everyone's going to benefit."
Originally published on November 15, 2002