The Next Mayor of New York Will Have to Collectively Bargain Some 152 New Union Contracts:Daniel Disalvo
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918804579107913080987666.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
From an op-ed by political scientist Daniel Disalvo in the New York Daily News, Sept. 29:
All of the city’s unions are working under contracts that have expired. They have been waiting out [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg in hopes that a Democrat will end up at City Hall. The next mayor will therefore have to collectively bargain some 152 new contracts. The unions are demanding salary increases and what would amount to $8 billion in back pay. . . .
And the rapidly rising pension and healthcare costs of the city’s public employees add up to billions more. Pension costs next year will be $8.8 billion; up from $3.1 billion in 2002. Healthcare will cost $8.2 billion; up from $2 billion—and 90% of the city’s workforce pays nothing towards its health coverage.
Those two big-ticket items now comprise 34% of the budget; up from 15% when Bloomberg took office. And with an $88 billion unfunded health care liability, the city’s cost curve points in one direction: Up.
In fact, over the course of the Bloomberg administration, the city’s budget increased nearly 50%, from $33.9 billion to $50.7 billion. Yet the new spending did not fund basic city services but instead went to pensions, health and fringe benefits for city workers and retirees.
In this year’s budget, these fixed costs constitute more than 50% of the budget for the first time in Gotham’s history.
A version of this article appeared October 2, 2013, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Notable & Quotable.
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