Differentiating himself from his likely Democratic rivals in the mayoral race, William C. Thompson Jr. vowed on Thursday that he would not raise taxes if elected.
Mr. Thompson, a former New York City comptroller, made his pledge after delivering a speech to a civic group in which he proposed to increase the number of police officers to 37,000 from the current level of 35,000, and to make the boroughs outside of Manhattan bigger hubs for back-office jobs. To pay for his ideas, he told the audience, he would look for a “better bang for the buck” in government “without increasing taxes.”
Asked by reporters later whether he was offering a “read my lips” pledge for the city, Mr. Thompson said yes — and repeated it five times over five minutes.
“Let me just be blunt, so there’s no misunderstanding: I’m not raising taxes,” said Mr. Thompson, who lost to Michael R. Bloomberg in the 2009 mayoral election.
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