Bloomberg wants a slight tightening of the rules for new hires. City police, firefighters and other uniformed personnel, for example, couldn't collect pensions until age 50.The mission of NYC government is to work the taxpayers to pay for the "special class".Bankruptcy is the only answer.
And again, it's long past time to scrap that ironclad guarantee of minimum benefits - and bring public pensions more in line with private-sector plans.
Alas, even the small Bloomberg reforms face a huge fight from public-sector unions: "There are certain things that are just totally unapproachable," says Municipal Labor Committee Chairman Harry Nespoli, referring to plans to curb benefits slightly for new employees.
The unions, of course, own the very lawmakers whose OK is needed.
In the state Senate, the Democrats put former top union honcho Sen. Diane Savino (D-S.I.) in charge of the Civil Service and Pensions Committee.
Not surprisingly, Savino has already said she doubts the reforms will be part of the budget - and doesn't "believe they should be, either."
Terrific. The state is $13 billion in the hole, and the city $4 billion - thanks in large part to pension bloat.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Inside the NYC Pension Bloat
The New York Post reports:
