The Vincent Gentile Experience, Chapter 1: Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

April 8, 2015

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Vincent Gentile just loves to tout his experience in the State Senate and City Council doesn’t he? Unfortunately for Gentile, digging into that “experience” brings up some things that will be very problematic for him as he struggles to get traction in his campaign for Congress.

For today’s dive into the Vincent Gentile Experience, I am focusing on Gentile’s controversial flip-flop on taxes when he was first elected to the City Council. To summarize, in 2003, Gentile campaigned against raising taxes. After elected, however, Gentile voted to raise sales taxes, income taxes, hotel taxes, landlord taxes, fees for marriage certificates, and higher tow rates.

This generated the following brutal press for Gentile:

  •  New York Sun Headline: “Gentile Runs Against Taxes, Votes for Them” “Gentile Runs Against Taxes, Votes for Them,” The New York Sun, May 7, 2003
  • New York Post editorial: “Russo, a lawyer, is a better choice than Vincent Gentile, a Democrat who’s flip-flopped on taxes” Source: Editorial, “Post Electoral Picks,” The New York Post,” Nov. 3, 2003
  • New York Post editorial: “Simply put, Gentile can’t be trusted. Earlier this year, he railed against the property-tax hike, but when faced with an opportunity to vote against more tax hikes, he voted for them.” “For the Council, A Reform Slate,” The New York Post, Oct. 30, 2002
  • New York Sun editorial: “Pat Russo, is challenging another incumbent Democrat, Vincent Gentile, who betrayed the anti-tax campaign on which he won his council seat” Editorial, “The Sun Palm Card,” The New York Sun, Nov. 4, 2003
  • The New York Sun: “Call him flip-flop Vinnie,” and “He lost the Senate race, and then spent his campaign for the council attacking Mayor Bloomberg ferociously for raising property taxes, even circulating a picture of the mayor’s house to make his case. Then, he voted to raise taxes.” Benjamin Smith, “Add Independence Party To List Of Gentile’s Opponents,” The New York Sun, June 19, 2003

These are all things to consider, especially in light of the fact that in last night’s debate Gentile wouldn’t rule out raising taxes if he were elected to Congress.

NRCC Comment: “Vincent Gentile should be ashamed and embarrassed to tout his record on the City Council. Not only did he vote with Bill de Blasio 99% of the time, but he blatantly lied to voters when he campaigned against raising taxes then did exactly that once elected. Gentile is nothing more than a dishonest politician who will lie to voters to get what he wants – a salary at their expense.” – NRCC Spokesman Ian Prior