Metro

Hypocrite handout

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During the recent inter view where he pledged to focus on reforming public- worker pensions, Mayor Bloomberg unex pectedly rose to the defense of unions.

“If you were a union member,” he told me, “you would want a leader to get the most money, best working conditions, shorter hours and all that.” But, he added, “the public hires the government to say no . . . and to not give away the store.”

A good point and well said, which makes it all the more curious why the mayor himself said yes to giving away the store.

The case involves what he calls the $12,000 annual “Christmas bonus” to 33,000 retired cops and firefighters. The tangled benefit supplement was born under Mayor John Lindsay, and Bloomberg wants Albany to eliminate it to help trim soaring pension costs.

What the mayor leaves out of the argument is his role in expanding the program. Because in addition to those 33,000 retirees, there are 6,900 current members of the NYPD and FDNY also getting the $12,000 each year.

A simple calculation shows that the extra benefit costs taxpayers about $80 million a year, though City Hall says it doesn’t itemize this portion. It is part of the entire program’s annual tab of $600 million, which is based on complex actuarial tables.

Whatever the cost, the portion for current employees represents an expensive case of double-dipping. These employees get their salary and bank part of their pension at the same time. And Bloomberg did it.

When he took office in 2002, the Police and Fire departments remained badly shaken by 9/11. The FDNY lost a staggering 343 people and the NYPD lost 23. Both also faced a wave of retirements, with a cadre of veterans reaching the 20-year mark, making them eligible for full pensions boosted by 9/11-related overtime.

The “solution” was to entice them to stay by offering the $12,000 annual payout. The city deposits the money in a fund, and cops and firefighters get it as a lump sum when they retire. The numerous retirees on higher disability pensions do not get the extra $12,000.

The lump-sum money is already exempt from state and local taxes, and the city helps roll it over into retirement accounts that make it free of federal taxes as well.

Albany signed off on the idea, which was understandable at a time of unprecedented loss and fears of another attack. But it is outrageous that, nearly 10 years later, the program continues to grow even as rich pensions are soaking Gotham in red ink.

What started as an effort to steady the uniform ranks is now another open-ended entitlement, with more working vets signing up to bank the $12,000 each year.

The double-dipping portion is little known, and City Hall could not offer any examples of where the mayor mentioned it specifically in recent years. I learned of it after a retired police officer named Joe Stewart alerted me, and the Mayor’s Office confirmed the history and Bloomberg’s role.

Stewart believes “it is a no-brainer to get rid of” the incentive because many workers would then retire after 20 years, creating openings for younger people and reducing the city’s pension obligations, which grow with longevity.

He’s right. More broadly, the outdated incentive undercuts Bloomberg’s depiction of the city as an innocent victim of Albany pandering. While state mandates are a big reason why pension costs are exploding, from $1.5 billion in 2001 to $8.5 billion in the next fiscal year, the mayor’s role in this case complicates the politics of an already-heated battle.

Even now, a public explanation of his culpability might put him on higher ground. Admitting that he, too, has a spending addiction could be the first step to a cure.

Mideast on fire, so guess who gets Bam-slapped?

The Muslim world is exploding, riots and bloody crackdowns are spreading, and Iranian warships are on the move. And the White House thinks it’s a good time to blast Israel at the United Nations.

Like a dog with a bone, Team Obama won’t drop its fixation that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are the reason peace remains elusive. Right, and the sun rises because the rooster crows.

Because it continues to confuse cause with effect, the United States joined Palestinians and terrorist-ruled states like Lebanon in denouncing Israel.

Even though it vetoed a Security Council resolution that called settlements “illegal,” the United States piled on with such vehemence that there is no practical difference. Ambassador Susan Rice regretted the veto, and said, “For more than four decades, Israeli settlement activity has corroded hopes for peace and stability in the region.”

That is the party line of Israel’s enemies, and it turns truth on its head. Successive Israeli governments offered peace deals that would create a Palestinian state, but no Palestinian leader, including current President Mahmoud Abbas, has the courage to make a final deal because it requires acceptance of Israel’s right to exist.

Moreover, Rice’s timing was as flawed as her logic. She turned on our closest ally and the one enduring democracy in the region during unprecedented turmoil. Israel lost its closest Arab leader in Hosni Mubarak, and now fears a hostile Egypt next door.

And Abbas is no Jeffersonian democrat. He recently canceled elections scheduled for September, and his security forces blocked marchers from showing support for protesters in other countries.

Given the chaos and the rising potential for war, it is unconscionable for America to undercut our ally and give Israel’s enemies an iota of aid and comfort.

Dems in the ‘No’

From Washington to Wisconsin, the battles over government spending are clarifying which party is the real Party of No. It’s Democrats in a landslide.

They say no to deficit and debt reduction. No to bringing sanity to public-employee costs. And Hell No to voters who want smaller, less-expensive government.

So much for President Obama’s plea for an “adult conversation” on entitlements. Maybe he meant “adult” as in XXX.

His was an especially cynical posture because his partymates were helping to whip up a frenzy among teachers and others in Wisconsin. A proposal there for unions to agree to givebacks in their Cadillac benefit plans and lose the right to negotiate future benefits was met with a near-riot.

Obama supported the unions and Dem legislators are hiding in other states to avoid voting. Meanwhile, schools were shut so teachers could march to prove their dedication to themselves, err, children.

Wisconsin’s new GOP governor, Scott Walker, invited Obama to butt out. “We’re focused on balancing our budget,” he told reporters. “It would be wise for the president and others in Washington to focus on balancing their budget, which they are a long way from doing.”

No kidding.

Mad con continues

Bernie Madoff swears the banks he dealt with “had to know” what he was up to. He also insists his family and the Wilpons, owners of the Mets, didn’t have a clue about his Ponzi scheme.

This front-page news in the Times was greased with the notion that because Madoff is in prison and his son is dead, we can trust him now. I say it proves he’s still a con man.