Ministry of Taxation and Finance

The city's DOH continues in its effort to try to cover up the embarrassment it must feel from the Taco Rat incident. The agency is now closing local restaurants at a rate that is three times greater than it was before Templelton on his pals went wild in the Village. In today's NY Post columnist Steve Cuozzo makes a very important observation about this Commissioner Frieden-led crackdown.

Cuozzo points out that "Frieden was stung up the wazoo by public and press outrage," but goes on to make the more important point that "Despite the well-publicized points system, the decision to close a place is more arbitrary than most realize. Many violations criteria are useless for safeguarding customers' health-like a missing 'no spitting' sign or a jar of olives left on the floor, as happened at the Coffee Shop."

The regulatory jihad is costing local eateries close to m$30 million a year, and the decision to force calorie posting will cost an additional $46 million. Very little of the department's activities has any good impact on protecting the health of New Yorkers. It does, however, directly imperil the health of the city's restaurants, a sector that employs hundreds of thousands of our folks. Just another reason why the expansion of government often means trouble for the industrious among us-and the average citizens who depend on their enterprise.