Bloomberg Patronizes deBlasio: Pushes "Once in a Generation" Opportunity to Slash City Worker Health and Pension Benefits

Not content to have left a destroyed education system in his wake (Message to world: New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg ruined the reputation of a New York City diploma. In a desperate attempt to boost graduation rates he inspired principals to institute Just Pass Everybody. The program has gotten so bad that in many schools principals would target teachers that so much as gave failing marks to students that rarely appeared to class.), Bloomberg broke with tradition of acting the gentleman and receding into the background while the new executive takes office.

No, Mr. PR himself just had to have a parting speech whose essential message was slash city worker benefits.

Refreshingly, some city media outlets have subtly noted that this is a bit off the track from tradition.

WCBS-TV: Bloomberg’s Meddling Ways On Unions Don’t Sit Well With De Blasio Mayor-Elect: Hizzoner Made No Deals With 152 Unions, Unprecedented Action

NY1: Bloomberg's Final Speech As Mayor Breaks Post-Election Cordiality With De Blasio

Cordially, mayor-elect Bill deBlasio gave a gentle rebuke. As reported by WCBS-TV, deBlasio said

[Bloomberg failed to settle 152 contracts with the city unions.]

“That’s never happened before. No previous mayor ever let that happen. We’re talking about a lot of different mayors, a lot of different ideologies and approaches, but no mayor ever let that happen before,” de Blasio said.

“I caution that one should be careful about giving advice from that perspective,” he added.

But the city unions, the city media and the mayor need to get square with reality, the city has a $2 Billion surplus, not deficit. The Daily News reported this morning, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio inherits $2.4B surplus.

It's time that the city unions get their due reward for four years of complacency: full retroactive pay and wage increases commensurate with costs of living in New York City. We trust that incoming Comptroller Scott Stringer will be as diligent as John Liu and find millions, possibly billions in wasteful no-bid spending-- CityTime, school networks, armies of lawyers burning a budget of perhaps millions to pursue a principal's personal vendetta against one teacher. See in particular, the Francesco Portelos case (read and also this). Yes, there are perhaps billions more than the $2 billion surplus.