Weiner Tries to Out-Bloomberg Bloomberg on Budget Management

Anthony Weiner, whose advocacy of middle-class concerns is the basis of his mayoral campaign, criticized the mayor on a perceived strength: the ability to manage a budget.

Weiner said that defined-pension benefits for public employees may soon end, but declined to take a position on the mayor's effort to create a new tier in the pension system that would require future city employees to pay more money toward their health care costs.

Speaking at a breakfast hosted by Citizens Union at the Puck Building, he consistently sought to position himself as a more responsible fiscal steward than the mayor, saying about municipal-employee benefits that "the time has come" for "future employees to expect that they're going to pay more for their health care."

Addressing reporters afterward, he said, "The days of having a guaranteed, defined benefit pension are probably not going to be around much longer."

He also announced at the event that he had raised, with matching funds, $6.7 million overall for his mayoral campaign, from 2,800 contributors.

Weiner declined to characterize his remarks in a campaign context, but sought to build the case for turning Michael Bloomberg out of office later this year. (Weiner only mentioned his only major opponent in the Democratic primary, Bill Thompson, when prompted by a reporter later.)

"Unfortunately, the door to change that citizens opened in Washington still seem to be shut here in New York City," said Weiner. New York City has "lost touch with its citizens" and "seems controlled by the elite and the powerful."

I asked Weiner at one point if the change people voted for during the presidential race was in fact what New Yorkers would be looking for in the mayor's race.

"The notion that we want to take back the halls of Washington from the elite and the empowered and give back to everyone else, something that Senator Obama talked about throughout the campaign and people clearly embraced, is clearly something we have to do here," he said.

He went on to say that while "the particulars might change, the same notion of reform that we had in Washington that was reflected in 2008, I think we are hungering for in 2009."

Weiner got some pointed questions from audience members who questioned him on the particulars of his legislative record – something his critics say didn't get enough scrutiny during his 2005 mayoral race when he was considered a long-shot before surging to a strong, second-place finish.

One older woman asked he supported a law that removed rent-control protection for apartments once they reached $2,000 a month – something called luxury decontrol. Weiner said he didn't want a program designed to protect affordable housing to also benefit wealthy New Yorkers who didn't need it. Later, Weiner expressed openness to adjusting the scale by which apartments lose their rent-control protection.

Later, a man asked about a facet of federal law that aimed at helping local governments more quickly examine DNA collected from rape victims. The law also allows law enforcement to collect DNA samples from suspects upon their arrest – which critics say infringes on people's privacy. Weiner expressed understanding about the man's concerns, but said it shouldn't be considered so taboo, since it's "not that different from collecting a fingerprint."