New York’s $132 billion budget, on course to be rubber-stamped to night, is an unbridled disaster for the state — but a big win for its public-employee unions and their bought-and-paid-for front, the ubiquitious Working Families Party.
The spending plan picks the pockets of the private sector to the tune of $8 billion in new taxes and fees — while the unions barely get a haircut.
That is to say, New York’s private-sector economy — which has shed a staggering 146,000 jobs since last August — will pay billions more for the privilege of attempting to produce sufficient wealth to sustain the state’s tax-mad ethic.
Those are actual working people now on the outside looking in — in stark contrast to the unionized public employees hiding behind the class-warfare rhetoric of the Working Families Party.
The unions haven’t suffered a singlelayoff — nor are they likely to, given the lush budget about to be voted on tonight.
But the WFP isn’t really a political party at all.
As Post Editorial Board member John Wilson explains in detail on the previous page, the “party” was established by Big Labor, to serve the interests of Big Labor.
It even runs a murky private corporation to do the business of Big Labor.
And what might that business be? Electing candidates willing to toe the Big Labor line.
In this respect, the circle truly is unbroken.
The same may not be true of various state campaign-finance laws, especially those relating to public disclosure — but New York’s political establishment seems most uncurious about that.
We wonder why.
In any event, Big Labor has constructed yet another morally corrupt vehicle to channel tax dollars its way — Exhibit A being the budget at issue.
For the rest of New York, the taxation only starts with the state budget.
Still to be extracted is the cash needed to keep the MTA solvent. And public-school districts are now beginning to adopt budgets of their own — which, as always, means yet another round of crippling property-tax hikes.
Yes, Paterson yesterday bizarrely congratulated himself and legislative leaders for having achieved “cuts” and “restraint on spending” in a budget that grew by fully 10 percent — more than 30 times inflation.
Requests for details on the “cuts” were unavailing, which is par for the Paterson press office.
A hospital-industry group did complain yesterday about “unprecedented levels” of trims, but the union representing health-care employees was silent — so we’ll believe there are real cuts there when we see them.
And the teachers unions were (dare we say smugly) quiet, too.
All in all, a good year for Big Labor and its cat’s-paw Working Families Party.
Not nearly so good for actual working people though.
Whether New York can survive another such budget cycle remains very much to be seen.