Category: News and Opinion

WHEN SIX POTENTIAL 2013 NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATES ARRIVE AT ONE BROOKLYN EVENT, THEN THE RACE IS ABOUT TO START FOLKS.

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Last Thursday night, District Leader Lori Knipel (44AD) and the Brooklyn Independent Democrats (BID) held their 14th annual awards dinner.  It was to the place to be. Many of those in attendance were political heavyweights in NYC politics. Six potential mayoral candidates for 2013 came. So too did the state comptroller, some members of congress, state senators, assembly members, city council members, judges and district leaders.

Two Pols In A Pod

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For those who are afraid that Donald Trump might actually become the Republican nominee for President next year, I say don’t worry.

 

Remember 4 years ago and see if these qualities that describe the then GOP front runner in all the polls don’t also apply to Trump. And we all remember what happened to that frontrunner.

 

Obnoxious New Yorker

Hosted NBC TV Show

Obsessed with golf

B’nai B’rak: Score One for the Heavenly Hosts

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Every Passover we learn that whoever searches deeply into the meaning of the story of the Exodus is considered praiseworthy.

An instance is told of five Rabbis at a Seder in B'Nai B'rak who become so animated in their discussion, they were still going at it when the time came for the morning prayers.

Today’s drosh will discuss the un-parting of the Red Sea in the context of last night’s events.

The MTA And Elsewhere: Who Should Pay for the Past?

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In my previous posts on the MTA financial disaster, I identified several costs that have nothing to do with providing transportation today, or in the future. Absent these costs, with fair pricing by contractors, productivity gains by workers, somewhat higher fares (though probably no higher per unlinked trip than in 1995), and congestion pricing, the MTA should be able to pay for both its rail operating needs and its ongoing rail capital needs – on a sustainable operating basis. These costs from the past include excess pension costs to cover deficient funding, above and beyond the additional costs created by post-1994 pension enhancements (which are morally the responsibility of existing workers and retirees), retiree health insurance in excess of 25 percent of the current cost of retiree health insurance to be deposited in a trust fund, and debt service, not including debts incurred for entirely new facilities that increase revenues or reduce costs (ie. not including debts for “state of good repair” and “normal replacement” “capital spending”).

The first step in addressing these costs from the past, the step our politicians are almost certain to be unwilling to take, is to tell the truth about them. For two centuries, generations of Americans saved and sacrificed to leave behind a better, richer country than the one they inherited. In effect there was a voluntary transfer of well being from poorer older generations to richer younger generations, because the older generations were primarily concerned with their children and their legacies. But the generations now in charge, the richest in U.S. history, have done the reverse. Those coming after will be poorer, pay more, and get less. In the public sector, the result could be a revulsion against public agencies and employees, as more and more money goes to the past and not public services and benefits, and public services and benefits thus seem to be a worse and worse deal. In contrast I would let people know, right in their face, exactly what they are paying in exchange for what they are getting, and how much in addition they are paying due to the legacy of Generation Greed. And not just at the MTA. h