Few people would dispute that the biggest fiscal problem facing both the city and state involve public employees, their work contracts, benefits and pensions. In many cases, salaries are too high, work rules too lax, benefits overly generous and pensions too costly.
This has become a problem across the country, with almost every chief executive talking about reforming government worker contracts. Same goes for New York, with both the mayor and governor talking the talk. But there is a stark difference in how each has performed in addressing this problem.
When Andrew Cuomo became governor, he inherited a state on the brink of disaster, with a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall and a long list of solutions attempted by the previous governors without success. Now, six months into his first term, Cuomo has seemingly achieved the impossible.
He struck a deal with the state’s largest government employee union, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), that included serious concessions to prevent large scale layoffs. The agreement includes a wage freeze for the next three years, with a two percent increase in years four and five. It also includes increases in healthcare premium co-payments and a redesign of the program including co-pays and deductibles. He also got unpaid furloughs for every worker, and in return agreed to layoff protection for the next two years.
This is a major breakthrough for the novice governor, and should set the tone for negotiations with the other state employee unions. Contrast this to the performance of third-term Mayor Bloomberg, and you see a tremendous difference.
Since getting elected 10 years ago, Bloomberg has handled union negotiations the same way every year. He talks tough and makes threats of large-scale layoffs. He maintains that position right up until the minute he caves in and gives the unions exactly what they want. This year he basically guaranteed the layoff of 4,000 teachers unless there were major concessions.
This is after Bloomberg has given teachers a roughly 60 percent increase in pay over his tenure, for essentially no additional performance. In the end, he sold out for peanuts, with the union agreeing to have the thousands of teachers who don’t have classroom hours to serve as the substitute teaching reserve instead of having additional part-time teachers as subs. They also agreed to cancel paid teacher sabbaticals, an egregious abuse that should have been eliminated years ago.
There were no layoffs, and no concessions on pensions, benefits or any of the real problems driving the budget into the red. As the supposedly experienced, savvy leader of the biggest city in America, and with all the advantages a leader could want, Bloomberg could learn a few things from the Cuomo budgetary playbook.
Robert Hornak is a Queens-based political consultant, blogger, and an active member of the Queens Republican Party.
