Last week was Medicaid week, based on data I have collected and want to let people see. That was planned. This week is turning out to be public employee pension week. That was not planned, but is in response to an excellent series the Times has produced on the subject. Better than anything the Times has done on any subject where I have specific knowledge in years. Today, the Times smoked out the three remaining major party candidates for Governor on the state legislature’s practice of granting New York City public employee pension sweeteners over the objection of New York City. For the most part, all three candidates answered the same, but even so, Suozzi had the best answer.
Category: News and Opinion
More From the Times on Pensions
|May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here. And let me repeat what I said yesterday: these pensions will not be paid!
Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today. Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit. With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times.
More From the Times on Pensions
|May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here. And let me repeat what I said yesterday: these pensions will not be paid!
Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today. Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit. With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times.
More From the Times on Pensions
|May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here. And let me repeat what I said yesterday: these pensions will not be paid!
Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today. Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit. With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times.
More From the Times on Pensions
|May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here. And let me repeat what I said yesterday: these pensions will not be paid!
Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today. Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit. With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times.
Why is the New York Times and other Major Newspapers Ignoring the Race in the 40th Assembly District?
|The New York Times is a fraudulent newspaper. There; I said it. To me it’s true. The editors are a bunch of scam-artists. Year after year, they project that they are the most liberal of all newspapers in this country; but that’s a lie, and it’s time to expose their hypocrisy. Okay; so there goes my future gig at the Times: whoop-dee-damn-do. I hate hypocrisy. I really do.
Two years ago Assemblyman Clarence Norman (43rdAD) was facing reelection-while at the same time facing indictments in Brooklyn’s courts of about 80 counts-the New York Times sat on their hands. They refused to enthusiastically endorse his competent opponent-attorney Edward A. Roberts. They also took a pass on Roger Green’s race (57thAD)-when an aggressive early stand could have helped prevent that embarrassment. This year, Diane Gordon is in a similar situation, and again the Times refuses to endorse in that race (40th AD). Either of Ms. Gordon’s opponents (Kenneth Evans or Winchester Key) is preferable to her. PERIOD. Ms. Gordon is also being opposed for District Leader/Female (she holds two positions in this district), and even there she should be voted out.
Don’t Be Wieners: A Fleeting Chance to Grow the Ferry System
|With the Second Avenue Subway, the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central, and other major rail projects planned, borrowed for, financially diverted from and abandoned, in some cases several times, new politicians on the block face a dilemma. Come up with even more money to carry out those plans, and they get the blame for the cost and disruption while the irresponsible pols that preceded them get credit for the improvement. Fail to do so and they might get blamed for the absence of such improvements. Thus, a few ambitious up and comers have hit upon water transportation as a new mode they can get credit for supporting, and have hit upon calls for public subsidies as a way to get their name in the news. Unfortunately, such subsidies would divert scarce resources from the existing subway system most New Yorkers rely on, to a new luxury mode that almost exclusively serves the better off — and relatively few of them at that. On a populist basis, such a proposal is easily and fairly attacked. There is, however, a potential transformational investment to that very subway system, one not on anybody’s radar screen, that would permanently increase the potential of ferry service as a transport mode. The opportunity to make that investment is about to close as a result of a development that would be built in its path. That investment is…
Don’t Be Wieners: A Fleeting Chance to Grow the Ferry System
|With the Second Avenue Subway, the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central, and other major rail projects planned, borrowed for, financially diverted from and abandoned, in some cases several times, new politicians on the block face a dilemma. Come up with even more money to carry out those plans, and they get the blame for the cost and disruption while the irresponsible pols that preceded them get credit for the improvement. Fail to do so and they might get blamed for the absence of such improvements. Thus, a few ambitious up and comers have hit upon water transportation as a new mode they can get credit for supporting, and have hit upon calls for public subsidies as a way to get their name in the news. Unfortunately, such subsidies would divert scarce resources from the existing subway system most New Yorkers rely on, to a new luxury mode that almost exclusively serves the better off — and relatively few of them at that. On a populist basis, such a proposal is easily and fairly attacked. There is, however, a potential transformational investment to that very subway system, one not on anybody’s radar screen, that would permanently increase the potential of ferry service as a transport mode. The opportunity to make that investment is about to close as a result of a development that would be built in its path. That investment is…
Don’t Be Wieners: A Fleeting Chance to Grow the Ferry System
|With the Second Avenue Subway, the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central, and other major rail projects planned, borrowed for, financially diverted from and abandoned, in some cases several times, new politicians on the block face a dilemma. Come up with even more money to carry out those plans, and they get the blame for the cost and disruption while the irresponsible pols that preceded them get credit for the improvement. Fail to do so and they might get blamed for the absence of such improvements. Thus, a few ambitious up and comers have hit upon water transportation as a new mode they can get credit for supporting, and have hit upon calls for public subsidies as a way to get their name in the news. Unfortunately, such subsidies would divert scarce resources from the existing subway system most New Yorkers rely on, to a new luxury mode that almost exclusively serves the better off — and relatively few of them at that. On a populist basis, such a proposal is easily and fairly attacked. There is, however, a potential transformational investment to that very subway system, one not on anybody’s radar screen, that would permanently increase the potential of ferry service as a transport mode. The opportunity to make that investment is about to close as a result of a development that would be built in its path. That investment is…
Don’t Be Wieners: A Fleeting Chance to Grow the Ferry System
|With the Second Avenue Subway, the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central, and other major rail projects planned, borrowed for, financially diverted from and abandoned, in some cases several times, new politicians on the block face a dilemma. Come up with even more money to carry out those plans, and they get the blame for the cost and disruption while the irresponsible pols that preceded them get credit for the improvement. Fail to do so and they might get blamed for the absence of such improvements. Thus, a few ambitious up and comers have hit upon water transportation as a new mode they can get credit for supporting, and have hit upon calls for public subsidies as a way to get their name in the news. Unfortunately, such subsidies would divert scarce resources from the existing subway system most New Yorkers rely on, to a new luxury mode that almost exclusively serves the better off — and relatively few of them at that. On a populist basis, such a proposal is easily and fairly attacked. There is, however, a potential transformational investment to that very subway system, one not on anybody’s radar screen, that would permanently increase the potential of ferry service as a transport mode. The opportunity to make that investment is about to close as a result of a development that would be built in its path. That investment is…