The mayor's proposed budget cuts were all Charles Goodwin and his Springfield Gardens neighbor Aubrey Brewster could talk about for an hour Wednesday, after hearing that the $400 property tax rebate they have relied on for several years will be eliminated.

The city started giving out the rebate checks four years ago to help the owners of one- and two-family homes after an 18.5 percent property tax hike went into effect. If the City Council agrees, a 7 percent property tax reduction enacted last year will also be cut.

"We have to pay the taxes and it's a lot of money," said Goodwin. "We’d like to have that check. In fact, we were looking forward to it."

"It was a real letdown to me because I was really looking forward to repair the house. The back of my house was leaking and going right down to the basement and I wanted that money to fix it," said Brewster.

Just six weeks ago, the mayor had announced he would not cut the rebate to bridge the city's multi-billion dollar budget gap. But on Wednesday, Bloomberg said the state of the economy had deteriorated so drastically that the city can no longer afford those breaks.

"I think it's fair to say that we simply cannot justify sending out the checks when the economy is reducing our revenues even further than we had predicted earlier in the year and before the financial crisis had its deep impact on our city,” said Bloomberg.

T $400 tax checks may not be sent out, but some homeowners want the money to be spent in other ways.

"With the market being the way it is and everything else, I think they should keep the money and do something constructive with it," said homeowner Lee Ramsey.

Now, property owners have to do with less.