Mayor Bloomberg has been coming up with some creative ways to fill in his budget holes. There was the smoking tax, followed by the smoking fines. Then there was fining people for sitting on milk crates, having too many words on their awning, and chewing gum without a permit. Now Bloomberg has resorted to jacking up the fines for health violations, as well as increasing enforcement to threat level red or "Gestapo level". The New York Post has the details.

In March, the city quietly jacked up fines for health violations and began allowing inspectors to count each cracked egg or hole in the ceiling as a separate violation. [...]

Restaurant owners say the new fines do little to help the public because officials didn't stiffen penalties on the biggest dining danger: food improperly refrigerated or heated.

Instead, they reclassified a slew of minor violations into a more serious category - meaning the city can charge more money for the offenses.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden defended the administration's policies all the way to the bank.

"This is not a revenue-generating situation. This is about protecting human health," [Frieden] told The Post. "We would be delighted if they kept the food so safe the fines went down to zero."

Why do I have trouble believing that Bloomberg and company are just doing this for the children? I just hope that the children, and New Yorkers alike, aren't too disappointed when their favorite restaurants start raising their prices, cutting their specials, or even shutting their doors. The economy has been hard enough on businesses without them having to put up with the smoke-nazis, milk-crate-nazis, and now the white-glove-nazis.