Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg Face Off Over Taxes

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is angry with a decision from Hillary Clinton's State Department to exempt embassies from property taxes -- a move that runs counter to Clinton's position when she was a New York senator. New York's WCBS reports that Bloomberg says the move will cost New York City $260 million -- including a $32 million check from Hungary that had yet to clear when the policy change came down. Once it did, Hungary canceled the check.

I do feel for Mayor Bloomberg -- it's tough to discover that the $32 million you are holding is suddenly worth only the paper it's printed on. But, if a reciprocal agreement by which U.S. embassies are also able to operate tax-free on foreign soil really will save Americans hundreds of millions of dollars, as a State Department spokesman told the New York Post, then it's not a bad call -- and it makes sense that Clinton's interest as secretary of state tends more toward the national balance sheet than it did when she was just representing New York.

Of course, I also live in D.C., where city officials frequently complain about the costs brought on by serving as the federal government's backyard, so I have sympathy for New York wanting to recoup some of the money it must lay out as the nation's financial capital. Perhaps New York City can get a break on its federal taxes. At the very least, the State Department can pick up the $66 million tab for police officers providing security at the United Nations, a bill that Bloomberg complained is still unpaid.