It turns out Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg does not have the power to halt the $400 homeowners’ rebate checks, the city’s top budget official grudgingly admitted on Monday, under questioning from the City Council.

Any elimination of the popular rebates requires City Council approval, the budget director, Mark Page, acknowledged. And council members, who have been flooded with calls from angry residents looking for their checks, declared the mayor’s idea to cut them “dead on arrival.”

The revelation represented an unusual embarrassment for an administration that prides itself on precision and efficiency, especially coming weeks after Mr. Bloomberg based his successful campaign for an extension of term limits on his fiscal résumé. On Nov. 5, when he announced he was shelving the rebates, the mayor said that the move would save the city $256 million as it grapples with an economic downturn.

The news about the rebates was not the only red-faced moment for the administration on Monday. Mr. Page also acknowledged that the mayor could not impose his much-discussed plan to impose a 6-cent charge on plastic bags without the approval of the State Legislature.

The Bloomberg administration had hoped to bypass the Legislature by calling the charge a fee, rather than a tax, but Mr. Page, after researching the issue, said that it would legally be considered a tax, and Albany’s approval — never a sure thing for Mr. Bloomberg — would be required.

(NY Times)