Josh Skaller, community organizer and candidate for the 39th Council District, just articulated exactly what I have been thinking as I see more and more glossy Bloomberg mailers:

All that is certain in New York these days are death, taxes, and propaganda from Michael Bloomberg.

While the city's working families face the worst budget crisis since the Great Depression, their mailboxes are stuffed with mailings from the Mayor hyping his five-borough economic plan that claims it will create or save 400,000 jobs - and the airwaves are crammed with countless advertisements repeating the same claim.

City Council candidate Josh Skaller is tired of big talk. He wants results - jobs for New Yorkers and a clear plan to get the City out of its current crisis.

"And what is that plan, Mr. Mayor?" asked Skaller, a Democrat seeking election to the Council from Brooklyn's 39th District. "Working New Yorkers who are feeling the crunch of this economy, small business owners who are struggling to make ends meet, city employees who have been the victims of budget cuts - these people need to hear the truth. They need to know there's a real plan in place to fix our city's economy. Instead, they get layoffs, hype and more parking tickets with higher fines.

"The truth is clear. Bloomberg's so-called plan is glossy smoke and very expensive mirrors," Skaller said. "He is re-selling the ideas we have all supported in the past and offering few new ones. When I join the City Council, the City will take clear and transparent actions to fix our economy by generating new ideas, creating good jobs, and becoming the center of America's new green economy.

"On one hand, we have the bleak picture painted by the Mayor's official Executive Budget, which has to tell the truth," Skaller said. "On the other hand, we have the rosy fable told by the Mayor's multi-million dollar reams of political mail and television commercials. New Yorkers demand to know the real story.

"The Mayor's Executive Budget cannot stretch the truth, or investors who have taken out municipal bonds can sue the City for fraud. But Bloomberg's glossy campaign mail is bound by no such constraints - and the numbers they use represent the fuzziest math.

"According to the Executive Budget issued May 1, 2009, New York City is projected to lose 328,000 jobs between August 2008 and the third quarter of 2010. Employment will be flat until 2012. The peak period for these projected job losses? The second quarter of 2009 - also known as now. So where is the leadership that Mayor Bloomberg would like us to believe in? What is the rationale for a third term in office?

"I call for real reform in New York City economic development and job creation - not just $40 million in bogus propaganda," Skaller said. "My call for a diverse economy that sticks up for New Yorkers who need it the most will help our city emerge from these tough times in better shape than ever."

I have thought all along that there is a major logical flaw in Bloomberg's claim that he, and only he, can save NYC from economic ruin: Bloomberg was mayor during the entire leadup to this crisis, and never said a word of warning, and he has been the mayor though the crisis up until now, and has done nothing to solve it. Just what is the basis of Bloomberg's claims to be our savior? So far he has been nothing but part of the problem. Mayor Bloomberg bears the same kind of responsibility as George Bush for this economic crisis, and NYC would be better off without him and his endless mailings.