Trying to forge a compromise, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn this week broached the idea of tapping a union-controlled health-care reserve fund to backfill the budget cuts. But the unions are divided on the idea -- which, in any event, would be just another one-shot gimmick.
...
Using one-shots to prevent budget cuts in the coming year would be a gamble with much bigger stakes. If Bloomberg yields to the pressure and starts playing the budget game for short-term political gain, New Yorkers could be paying the price in the form of higher taxes and diminished services for years to come.
And I
write about the GOP-controlled State Senate's symbolic vote to repeal
the payroll tax for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority:
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans fulfilled a longtime promise,
voting to slash the tax roughly in half.
...
[A]ll the GOP has done is remind us that the shift of party
control of the Senate only changes the sound of the grandstanding. The
Republicans are no more likely to stick up for taxpayers and riders against
public-sector unions than were the Democrats.
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