Even as he warns of budget doom, Gov.Paterson is moving to ensure sky-high public-sector labor costs in New York by stacking a key panel with pro-union cronies.
Paterson wants Rosemary Queenan, an in-house lawyer for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association from 2001 to 2007, to fill the open seat on the three-member Public Employment Relations Board.
The board helps settle collective-bargaining disputes between unions and state and local governments. Members with ties to unions already hold two PERB seats; Queenan would make it unanimous. How fair is that?
Couldn’t Paterson give at least one seat to someone who’d look out for Joe and Jane Taxpayer? After all, labor would still have a 2-1 edge – enough to prevail in majority-wins rulings.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno – whose members must give Queenan a green light – can’t allow such outrageous deck-stacking to take place.
If he does, PERB rulings may wind up tilting even further in favor of unions – at taxpayer expense. The panel, for example, may OK higher pay and perks for public workers, straining already squeezed budgets not just in Albany, but in Gotham – and jurisdictions from Buffalo to Montauk.
Last Thursday, Mayor Bloomberg noted that an unfavorable PERB ruling on the PBA contract – possibly this month – might lead to renegotiations with other unions and throw his carefully balanced budget out of whack.
If so, he warned, he might move up a property-tax hike he’s planning for 2009.
Just what New Yorkers need.
How much pain will it take before New York’s pols stop their shilling for Big Labor?
Just a few weeks ago, lawmakers stiffed schoolkids, banning the use of stu dent test scores in tenure deci sions.
Why? Because the teachers union feared that repeatedly lousy scores by a particular teacher’s students might jeopardize the virtually automatic tenure he or she now expects – and law makers didn’t want to cross the union.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg cites a $10 billion total shortfall in the city’s budget by 2012, and Paterson warns of an unheard-of $27 billion hole for Albany over the next four years.
The gov’s willingness to cede PERB to labor raises the question: Does he really care about the gaps?
Bruno, meanwhile, is desperately clinging to his two-seat edge in the Senate as the November election approaches. But New York’s finances are far too besieged for him to pander to the unions for political reasons.
Bruno needs to stop this outrage.
Now.